Ramstein Air Base, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Donald Trump's return to the White House would open a “new chapter” and reiterated his call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia to make peace.” He made the request as the Biden administration announced what is likely to be the last major military aid package for Ukraine, a pledge of $500 million in arms and other support.
Zelensky spoke to a gathering of about 50 allies at the US military's Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the last such meeting before Trump takes office on January 20. His quick return to the White House has put future American support in doubt Military efforts of Ukraineconsidering the previous one favorable remarks about authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump's promise to quickly end the war nearly three years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion.
Although he has offered no clear indication of how he intends to achieve this, many in Ukraine and across Europe are concerned that Trump may follow through on the promise by denying aid to Ukraine and pushing Zelensky to negotiate a truce which allows Russia to maintain control over some huge territories occupied in eastern Ukraine in the Donbass.
“It is clear that a new chapter begins for Europe and the whole world – in just 11 days, a time when we must cooperate even more, rely even more on each other and achieve even greater results together,” Zelenskiy said, adding that he saw it “as a time of opportunity.”
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As the brutal war nears its three-year mark, which it will reach on February 24, Zelensky reiterated his call for Western allies to send troops to help Ukraine.
“Our goal is to find as many tools as possible to force Russia to peace,” he said at the meeting. “I believe that this arrangement of contingent partners is one of the best tools.”
The United States under President Joe Biden was Ukraine's largest supporter during the war, providing more than $65 billion in military aid as of February 2022. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who launched the Rammstein format shortly after the war began, announced a new military aid package on Thursday.
The aid, which includes a wide range of missiles and other weapons and equipment, as well as the provision of services, training and transportation, will be the 74th such package provided to Ukraine from the existing US military stockpile since Mr. Biden took office. The department said in a statement.
“The United States and more than 50 countries are united to provide Ukraine with the capabilities it needs to defend against Russian aggression,” State Secretary Anthony Blinken said.
Ukraine's war against invading Russian forces is “important to all of us,” Austin said as he opened the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. “We are all interested in ensuring that autocrats cannot place their imperial ambitions above the fundamental rights of free and sovereign peoples.”
The head of the European Union's foreign policy, Kaya Kalas, said that she hopes that the United States will continue to support Ukraine. If not, she added, the EU is ready to take the initiative.
“I'm really sure that all the other members, and hopefully the United States as well, are ready to continue supporting Ukraine,” Kalas said as she headed to the meeting in Ramstein.
At this stage, she told reporters, “we should not speculate” about future US support. But she said that “it is not in America's interest for Russia to be the strongest power in the world.”
But she added that “the European Union is also ready to take that lead if the United States is not willing to do so.”
Now Russian and Ukrainian forces fought fierce battlesseeking to consolidate its position on the battlefield before Trump's inauguration.
Trump has long criticized NATO allies for spending too little on common defense. This week he caused even more anxiety refusing to rule out military action to take Greenlandan autonomous territory of Denmark, an EU and NATO member, under US control along with the Panama Canal.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said allies need to help Ukraine achieve a position of strength ahead of any possible ceasefire or peace talks.
“We have to put Ukraine in the best position, so that one day, when Ukraine initiates negotiations on how to resolve this conflict, they will be in the best position to do so,” he said. “And then when those negotiations are over, it's going to be looked at in a way whether it's a good deal or not. And if it's not a good deal, it will be watched by the Chinese, North Koreans, Iran, of course, Russia.”
“The whole world is watching,” Rutte stressed.