President Joe Biden will urge Donald Trump to continue supporting Ukraine amid concerns that the president-elect could cut military aid to the war-torn nation.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will make a final call to keep the United States “in” the Russia-Ukraine war during a meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Trump has vowed to end the war the day after becoming president and has boasted of his “very good relationship” with President Putin, apparently warning him not to escalate the conflict when they spoke by phone on Thursday.
He has also said that the invasion would never have happened if he had been in the White House and has criticized Biden’s level of support for Ukraine.
Now, in a meeting to discuss a smooth transition of power, Biden will argue that ‘the United States should not walk away from Ukraine; “Leaving Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” CBS reported.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meet at Trump Tower in New York in September
President Joe Biden speaks at the National Veterans Day celebration at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery.
President Donald Trump meets with Vladimir Putin of Russia at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg in July 2017.
Since the war began in 2022, the United States has been the largest provider of financial and military assistance to Ukraine.
Biden is also expected to spend the remaining $6 billion in Ukraine security assistance funds before leaving office as president in January.
Britain, France and Germany have already promised to support Ukraine “for as long as necessary” and Zelensky is adamantly opposed to ceding territory to Putin.
Last week it emerged that Trump could propose an 800-mile demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine as part of a plan to end the war early.
The plans, which were outlined by three Trump staffers, would involve the area being guarded by British and European troops.
It would mean Russia would maintain territorial gains made in Ukraine with the current border frozen. Kyiv would also have to ensure that it does not join NATO for 20 years.
According to the plans, the United States would arm Ukraine in exchange for preventing Russia from restarting the war. However, responsibility for managing and financing the buffer zone would fall solely on Ukraine’s European allies.
Zelensky (pictured) strongly opposes ceding territory to Vladimir Putin
US military aid to Ukraine feared to decline when Trump takes office (US military file photo)
Ukrainian servicemen of the 26th artillery brigade fire an AHS Krab self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near the front line in the Chasiv Yar area
“We can provide training and other support, but the barrel of the gun will be European,” a member of Trump’s team told the Wall Street Journal.
‘We will not send American men and women to defend peace in Ukraine. And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it.
Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu said Thursday that the situation in the combat zone in Ukraine is not in kyiv’s favor and that the West should accept it and negotiate an end to the conflict, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Now, when the situation in the theater of military operations does not favor the kyiv regime, the West faces a choice: continue financing it and destroying the Ukrainian population or recognize the current realities and start negotiating,” Shoigu was quoted as saying in a statement. meeting of secretaries of the security councils of the nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moscow.
Many analysts have warned that Trump is likely to reduce US military aid to Ukraine and force kyiv’s European partners to take on an enormous burden to maintain an adequate weapons supply, a move that would certainly increase pressure on Zelensky to consider a negotiated agreement.
An aerial view shows the destroyed town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, near the border with Russia, on October 2.
Donald Trump made a stunning political comeback and recaptured the White House in a dominant victory in the 2024 US presidential election.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky accuses the West of ignoring the threat that 11,000 North Korean soldiers will begin confronting his forces in the war zone.
“Trump is right to say that European allies have underperformed on defense and been overly reliant on Uncle Sam to protect them for too long, and this is a big wake-up call for the West,” said Dr. Russell Foster, professor holder of British Sciences. and International Politics at King’s College London, he told MailOnline.
“But Europe, Canada and Australasia have let their defense spending stagnate for so long that they have nowhere near the industrial base or military infrastructure to help defend Ukraine and themselves from further aggression without American help.
“We are likely to see large demands for defense spending and investment across NATO, but this will take years and will be enormously costly at a time of economic stagnation. The future of Western defense now looks very bleak.”
Ed Arnold, senior fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, added: “The immediate crisis within Europe will be how to continue diplomatic, military and humanitarian support to Ukraine without the United States.”
“Whatever mechanism it is adopted by – NATO, EU or bilaterally – it will be incredibly expensive.”