Roving Periscope: Trump-panicked, Europe’s last appeal to Biden to rush Ukraine aid
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With Donald Trump’s second inauguration on January 25, 2025, expected to trigger geopolitical temblors, Europe has made a last-ditch appeal to outgoing US President Joe Biden to rush the promised American support for Ukraine to strengthen Kyiv’s position to the extent possible before the Democrat’s presidential term ends in the next two months.
Trump, the 47th US President-elect, has said he would seek a quick deal between Kyiv and Moscow, raising concerns in Europe that it could be disadvantageous to Ukraine and possibly entrench gains made by Russia since it invaded in February 2022, the media reported on Friday.
European leaders urged the Biden Administration to provide Ukraine with more weapons and artillery, impose additional sanctions on key Russian revenue streams, and target Moscow’s ability to acquire banned technologies used in weapons.
Post-Trump’s win, outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a hastily arranged trip to Brussels on Wednesday to reassure NATO and European Union allies that the US will intensify its efforts to send resources to Ukraine ahead of the inauguration of Trump, who has strongly criticized the scale of the US effort to defend Kyiv.
The resources Blinken mentioned — money, ammunition, weapons — mainly come from a USD 61 billion package passed by the US Congress earlier this year. “Every dollar at our disposal” will be rushed through, he said.
However, the delivery of some weapons could take many months and stretch beyond Biden’s time in office.
Even though time is running short for Biden to act on the requests, the US is already working on adopting new sanctions against Russia’s oil fleet and North Korea — which has sent troops to aid Moscow’s war effort – by the end of November, the reports, quoting officials, said.
Europe has accelerated efforts to protect its interests, particularly when it comes to Ukraine’s war efforts before the new US President takes over. Taking an antagonistic stance toward Europe in September 2024, Trump sidestepped a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to succeed in its effort to expel the invading Russians.
“The next few weeks will be critical to put Ukraine in a strong position,” Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said, adding any deal negotiated by Trump “may try to freeze the conflict on the lines where Russia now occupies 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.”
“We are going to do as much as we can to support Ukraine before the new team takes over,” US Army’s Acquisition Chief Douglas Bush said.
Several EU leaders have also been pushing the US to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, a move that Kyiv and those allies believe would significantly improve the war-torn country’s ability to defend itself from Moscow’s attacks on critical infrastructure.
President Biden has so far resisted this request while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has openly opposed it. Moreover, it could have a limited impact on the battlefield and is not worth the escalation risk.
“When we engage with our American friends and partners, I hope we’ll continue to support Ukrainians, including on deep strikes, to use legitimate defense when targets are used to strike Ukraine’s defense and infrastructure,” France’s Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the US and its NATO allies against allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia using weapons that they’ve supplied. Ukraine also wants to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and French SCALPs to carry out the strikes.
For its part, the EU is bracing for a disruptive Trump presidency amid concerns that the bloc will need to boost aid to Kyiv because of diminished American support. It is seeking to accelerate talks with the UK on a new defense and security pact, the reports said.
Even though the EU is the biggest provider of aid to Ukraine, Kyiv relies on the US for crucial military resources such as F-16s and ATACM long-range missiles. The EU allocated €118 billion (USD 126 billion) since the start of the conflict, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
