By LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press)
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged on Tuesday that the U.S. will continue to help Ukraine in its war against Russia, even as the U.S. Congress is still at a standstill over providing more weapons to the front.
“The United States will not allow Ukraine to fail,” Austin said, speaking to over 50 defense leaders from Europe and around the world who are gathered at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “This coalition will not allow Ukraine to fail. And the free world will not allow Ukraine to fail.”
The meeting occurred a week after U.S. defense officials discovered and used $300 million in contract savings to finance a new set of military aid for Ukraine, repurposing weapons from Pentagon stocks.
During the meeting, leaders from other countries talked about new aid for Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius informed reporters that Germany will provide ammunition as well as armored and transport vehicles worth about $542 million (500 million euros).
“We are assisting Ukraine with what it requires most in its defense against Russian aggression,” Pistorius said, adding that the aid includes 10,000 rounds of ammunition from the German Army, or Bundeswehr, stocks that would be delivered to Ukraine very soon, as well as 100 armored vehicles for the infantry and 100 transport vehicles.
Asked if he still views the Americans as a trustworthy ally given the ongoing delay in funding approval by Congress, Pistorius stated, “I have no doubt about the reliability of the Americans.”
The $300 million U.S. aid package was the first installment of weapons sent by the Biden administration since December, despite increasingly dire battlefield conditions in Ukraine.
The discovered money — which officials referred to as a “one-time shot” — enabled the Defense Department to utilize presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to withdraw weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks and promptly send them to Ukraine. The funds are then used to purchase replacement items to ensure the U.S. military is prepared to fight and safeguard the homeland.
U.S. leaders had claimed for the past three months that they couldn’t take more weapons off the shelves because they have run out of money to replenish the stocks. Congress has been deadlocked for months over a new $95 billion supplemental bill that includes about $60 billion in aid for Ukraine.
U.S. officials argue there is bipartisan support for the package, but several Republicans oppose it, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.
Funding to train Ukrainian forces is also at risk. The U.S. Army regional command for Europe and Africa, which is based in Germany, has spent over $500 million from its base budget so far this fiscal year for the training and expects to use up all the money by June, according to U.S. officials.
The command used about $2 billion for training in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, which was covered by supplemental funding approved by Congress. The U.S. has trained about 19,000 Ukrainian forces to date, most of them at the Army bases in Germany. Altogether, the international coalition has trained over 129,000 Ukrainians at over 100 different locations worldwide.
Training progress has slowed down because the U.S. is waiting for the next large group of Ukrainian troops to arrive. It's hard to schedule because Ukraine often has to take troops from the battlefront to send them for training.
U.S. officials have been publicly expressing the hope that lawmakers will act soon to approve the supplemental bill, but they have also been struggling to find other ways to provide assistance to Ukraine.
Defense officials continue to warn that Ukraine is still greatly outnumbered by Russia on the battlefield, and there are persistent reports of Ukrainian troops rationing or running out of ammunition on the front lines.
Recently, Ukrainian troops left the eastern city of Avdiivka, where outnumbered defenders had resisted a Russian assault for four months. Troops complained of running low on ammunition while facing a constant barrage of airstrikes from glide bombs, enormous unguided Soviet-era weapons equipped with a navigational targeting system, that destroy everything around them, and motion-sensing explosive drones that could enter buildings and hunt personnel.
The 20th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group is taking place on Tuesday, which has been the key organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
During his opening remarks, Austin mentioned that Russia has suffered a 'staggering cost' for the war, repeating estimates that at least 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war, which has cost Moscow up to $211 billion.
“Ukraine’s troops face difficult conditions and intense fighting. And Ukraine’s civilians endure a constant barrage of Russian missiles and Iranian drones,” said Austin. “But Ukraine won’t back down. And neither will the United States.”
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