The White House is planning a last-minute effort to aid Ukraine, including more weapons and sweeping sanctions against Russia, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Dec. 5, according to a briefing shared with the Guardian.
Sullivan reportedly committed to providing the aid to Ukraine during a meeting on Dec. 5 with Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office.
Washington will send Kyiv hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, and hundreds of armored vehicles by mid-January, the briefing said. The U.S. also offered to train soldiers at sites beyond Ukrainian territory.
The support will be accompanied by $20 billion in loans backed by frozen Russian assets, agreed to earlier this year as part of the G7 pledge, and another round of sanctions against Moscow.
The purpose of the latest package is to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position ahead of peace talks with Russia.
U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to shore up assistance to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump, who has criticized military support for Kyiv, takes office on Jan. 20. Trump has signalled that he wants Kyiv to enter into negotiations with Moscow as soon as possible.
The reported aid commitment comes a day after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected Biden's request for an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine.
"I'm not planning to do that," Johnson, a Republican and Trump backer, said during a press briefing Dec. 4.
Yermak led a Ukrainian delegation on a visit to Washington Dec. 4-5 to meet with members of Trump's incoming administration, including Vice President-elect JD Vance. He reported that he met with Sullivan on Dec. 5, but has not yet shared details of the discussion.
Olena Goncharova
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with the head of the office of the Ukrainian president Andriy Yermak for more than an hour on Thursday, committing to provide Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of additional artillery rounds, thousands of rockets and hundreds of armored vehicles by mid-January, according to the briefing shared with the Guardian.
The US is also pledging to support Ukraine’s manpower challenge, offering to train new troops at sites outside Ukrainian territory. This comes alongside a nearly finalized $20bn in loans, which will be backed by profits from immobilized Russian sovereign assets.
The United States is tying that to a number of new sanctions to come in the coming weeks, all with the intent of complicating Russia’s ability to sustain its war effort and boosting Ukraine’s bargaining power at the negotiation table that could lay the groundwork for a future settlement.
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