Ramstein Air Base, Germany – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Donald Trump's return to the White House would open a “new chapter” and repeated a call for Western allies to send troops to “bring peace to Russia “. He made the plea as the Biden administration announced what will likely be its last major military aid package for Ukraine — a $500 million military and other aid pledge.
Zelenskyy spoke at a gathering of about 50 friends at the US military's Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the last such gathering before Trump takes office on January 20. War effort in Ukrainegiven before favorable comments about authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump's vow to quickly end the war nearly three years after Moscow launched its full-scale offensive.
Although he has not given a clear indication of how he intends to achieve that, many in Ukraine and across Europe worry that Trump could fulfill his promise by supporting Ukraine and pushing Zelenskyy to negotiate a truce which allows Russia to control some of the large land
“It is clear that a new chapter is starting for Europe and the whole world – just 11 days from now, a time when we need to cooperate even more, rely on each other even more, and achieve even greater results together,” Zelenskyy said, adding. that he saw it “as a time of opportunity.”
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As the war of attrition approaches the three-year mark, which it will hit on February 24, Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on Western allies to send troops to help Ukraine.
“Our goal is to find as many instruments as possible to bring Russia to peace,” he told the meeting. “I believe that the use of such partner organizations is one of the best instruments.
The United States under President Joe Biden has been the largest donor to Ukraine during the war, providing military aid worth more than $65 billion as of February 2022. The US Secretary of Defense announced Lloyd Austin – who launched the Ramstein format shortly after the war began – forwarded the new military support package. Thursday.
The aid, which includes a wide range of missiles and other weapons and equipment, as well as provisions for services, training and transport, will be the 74th such package provided from the military registers of the SA for Ukraine since Mr. Biden took office, the State. The Department said in a statement.
“The United States and more than 50 countries are united to ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Ukraine's war against the Russian invasion forces “is important to all of us,” Austin said, opening the 25th meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group. “We all have a stake in ensuring that autocrats cannot put their imperial ambitions ahead of the constitutional rights of citizens and sovereigns.”
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she hoped the US would continue to support Ukraine. If not, she said, the EU was ready to take the lead.
“I'm really sure that all the other members, and hopefully also the United States, are ready to continue their support for Ukraine,” Kallas said as she headed to the Ramstein meeting.
At this point, she told reporters, “we shouldn't speculate too much” about future US aid. But she said “it is not in America's interest that Russia be the strongest force in the world.”
But she said that “the European Union is also ready to take over this leadership if the United States is not willing to do so.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces are now engaged in fierce fightinglooking to secure their strongholds before Trump's inauguration.
Trump has long criticized NATO allies for spending too little on the bloc's shared defense. This week, he raised more alarm with refusing to avoid military action to take Greenlandan independent territory of EU and NATO member Denmark, controlled by the US, along with the Panama Canal.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that alliances must help Ukraine reach a strong position ahead of a ceasefire or peace talks.
“We need to bring Ukraine into the best position that one day, when the Ukrainian initiative starts conversations on how to find a solution to this conflict, they are in the -best position to do that,” he said. “And then when those discussions end, it will be looked at, in a sense, whether it's good or not. And if it's not good, the Chinese, the North Koreans, Iran will look at it, obviously, Russia.”
“The whole world is watching,” Rutte said.
