Brussels
CNN
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With the US presidential election just around the corner, NATO allies say US support for Ukraine will decline next year if Donald Trump wins, even as Iran, North Korea and China step up military aid to Russia. This week’s NATO defense chiefs meeting is now in jeopardy. .
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, responding to questions from allies about the election and its impact on aid to Ukraine, spoke about the upcoming election during a closed-door meeting Thursday at NATO, saying he can’t predict what the future holds, but that he knows what’s next. He said: There remains bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress, according to people familiar with the meeting.
NATO officials said the United States was preparing to play a smaller role.
A senior NATO official said Thursday that “we cannot expect the United States to continue to shoulder an excessive burden” in aiding Ukraine. “There is,” he said. I’ll accept that. ”
“Europe needs to step up even more,” the official added.
Trump’s possible victory raises questions about the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Last month, the former president declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, describing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “salesman” who “should never have started the war.”
For some involved, the timing could not have been worse.
NATO officials said they were “very concerned.” “Optimistic is not the word I would like to use to describe the current situation (in Ukraine).”
Russia continues to make small tactical advances inside Ukraine, outnumbering Ukrainian forces 3 to 1 on the battlefield and maintaining a “significant” advantage in manpower and ammunition ahead of the harsh winter, a senior official said. said. President Joe Biden also remains opposed to allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by the United States to strike deep into Russia, a policy many NATO officials agree with. do not have.
“I don’t think anyone would argue that there are no valid and legitimate targets in Russia that could have battlefield effects” for Ukraine, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) official said. “Ukraine needs to have a wide range of capabilities to target those people.”
Austin suggested Friday that Ukraine’s own cheap, long-range drones are a better way to destroy targets inside Russia, such as ammunition dumps, than expensive precision-guided missiles. “UAVs have proven to be very effective and accurate,” he said of unmanned aerial vehicles.
More broadly, uncertainty over the future role of the United States has primarily led to NATO increasing its authority to train Ukraine’s military and provide military aid, and the United States slowed aid to Ukraine under the Trump administration. If it decided to stop or stop the European Union, it would tighten European control. . But the mechanism, known as NATO Security Assistance and Training to Ukraine, is not yet fully operational and will take several more months to become operational, another NATO official said on Friday.
Meanwhile, European countries are producing major weapons and equipment, not only to maintain aid to Ukraine even if the United States withdraws aid, but also to ensure their own security in the face of the Russian threat. is trying to increase production.
President Trump told NATO members earlier this year that the United States would not protect them from Russian aggression unless they met NATO spending guidelines, and that he would “encourage[Russia]to do whatever they want.” said. ”
EU and G7 plans to help secure long-term funding for Ukraine’s military and reconstruction have also stalled. Hungary has blocked changes to EU sanctions on Russian frozen assets needed to use windfall proceeds from Russia’s frozen assets to extend a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, with decision pending until after U.S. presidential election They argue that we should wait.
The Biden administration is scrambling to ensure Ukraine has what it needs for a long war, and Biden has now “used up” all of the funding allocated to Ukraine by Congress, said James, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.・Mr. O’Brien speaks. The statement was made at a conference in Riga on Friday. O’Brien said the administration is also investing “billions of dollars” into Ukraine’s defense industry so that Ukraine can manufacture its own munitions.
“We are building long-term capabilities for Ukraine every day,” Austin said Friday. “It will lead to Ukraine’s success in the long run.”
North Korea, Iran and China’s support for Russia soars
However, it is unlikely that Western countries will be able to catch up with Russia in the near future.
Russia alone produces about 3 million rounds of ammunition a year, while NATO as a whole produces fewer than 2 million rounds a year, NATO officials said Thursday. A few years ago, this amounted to just tens of thousands of rounds a year, but that still falls short of what Ukraine needs.
A senior NATO official said Russia can maintain high levels of military production for at least the next few years because it produces very low-tech weapons such as dumb bombs and has put its entire economy on the war footing.
Russia also receives significant support from North Korea, which has provided Moscow with 11,000 ammunition containers containing about 2 million shells since last year, according to a senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) official. I am doing it. South Korea’s intelligence agency announced Friday that North Korea also sent 1,500 soldiers to Russia for training.
Meanwhile, Iran has shipped three ballistic missiles to Russia and China remains a “key enabler” of Russia’s war effort, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) official said.
Mr. Austin sought to reassure allies that the United States is committed to expanding domestic arms and equipment production so that U.S. military aid can continue to flow to Kiev at least through next year. NATO officials also said that during a meeting with NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners on Thursday, Austin and his partners discussed defense supply chains to identify and source raw materials needed to increase weapons production. It is said that
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday he was confident the alliance would “not lose its unity” on Ukraine. And on Friday, he took a thinly veiled dig at the character of aid to Ukraine as a handout.
“Helping Ukraine is not an act of charity,” he said. “It’s also an investment in our own security, because the cost of letting[Russian President Vladimir]Putin have his way is much higher than the cost of supporting Ukraine.”
