RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used their final meeting Thursday to press the incoming Trump administration to not give up on Kyiv’s fight, warning that to cease military support now “will only invite more aggression, chaos and war.”
“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Zelenskyy said. “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased of the map.”
Austin also announced the U.S. would send another $500 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including missiles for fighter jets, sustainment equipment for F-16s, armored bridging systems and small arms and ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from U.S. stockpiles, and the Pentagon is pushing to get them into Ukraine before the end of the month.
Ukraine is in the midst of launching a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and is facing a barrage of long-range missiles and ongoing advances from Russia as both sides seek to put themselves in the strongest negotiating point possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Zelenskyy called the Kursk offensive “one of our biggest wins” that has cost Russia and North Korea, which sent soldiers to help Russia in Kursk, thousands of troops. Zelenskyy said the offensive resulted in North Korea suffering 4,000 casualties, but U.S. estimates put the number lower at about 1,200.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine will continue to need air defense systems and munitions to defend against Russia's missile attacks.
The latest U.S. package leaves about $3.85 billion in funding to provide future arms shipments to Ukraine. If the Biden administration makes no further announcements, that balance will be available to Trump to send if he chooses.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow,” Austin told the approximately 50 member nations who have been meeting over the last three years to coordinate weapons and military support for Ukraine. “If autocrats conclude that democracies will lose their nerve, surrender their interests, and forget their principles, we will only see more land grabs. If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.”
Austin leaves a consortium that now has more than a half dozen independent coalitions of those countries who are focused on Ukraine's longer-term security capabilities and who have committed to continuing to stand up those needs through 2027.
In the months since Trump's election victory, Europe has grappled with what that change will mean in terms of their fight to keep Russia from further advancing, and whether the post-World War II western alliance will hold.
In recent days, Trump has threatened to take Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — a NATO member — by military means if necessary. Such action would upend all norms of the historic NATO alliance and possibly require members to come to the defense of Denmark due to U.S. aggression.
Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called Trump's comments “diplomatically astonishing.”
“Alliances are alliances, to stay alliances. Regardless of who is governing countries,” he said. “I'm quite optimistic that remarks like that won't really influence U.S. politics after the 20th of January.”
There are also questions as to whether there will be a future meeting of the 50-member Ukraine Defense Contact Group, or whether it will assume a new shape under one of its major European contributors, such as Germany.
If the U.S., does not come back to the table to assist Ukraine, Pistorius said Germany and several other European countries are discussing options. Pistorius said he intends to travel to the U.S. shortly after the inauguration to meet his new counterpart to discuss the issue.
“It’s clear a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now,” Zelenskyy said. “A time when we will have to cooperate even more, rely even more on one another even more and achieve even greater results together.”
Globally, countries including the U.S. have ramped up domestic weapons production as the Ukraine war exposed that all of those stockpiles were woefully unprepared for a major conventional land war.
The U.S. has provided about $66 billion of the total aid since February 2022 and has been able to deliver most of that total — between 80% and 90% — already to Ukraine.
“Retreat will only provide incentives for more imperial aggression,” Austin told the group. “And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder. Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world.”
