Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine on Monday, when he will meet with Ukrainian officials to relay a message of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and that America stands firmly behind the Eastern European country in its war with Russia.<\/p>\n
After an 11-hour train ride from Poland to Ukraine, Austin exited onto the platform, where he shook hands with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. U.S. Defense Attach\u00e9 Brig. Gen. Kipling Kahler was also present to greet him.<\/p>\n
\u2018I just arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders,\u2019 Austin wrote on the social media site X. \u2018I\u2019m here today to deliver an important message \u2013 the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine in their fight for freedom against Russia\u2019s aggression, both now and into the future.\u2019<\/p>\n
The trip is Secretary Austin\u2019s second to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. His last visit was in April 2022.<\/p>\n
The Department of Defense released a statement confirming Austin would meet with Ukrainian leaders to bolster the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship.<\/p>\n
\u2018During his visit, Secretary Austin will engage in high-level talks with Ukrainian leadership. The discussions will focus on further bolstering the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine, to include ensuring Ukraine\u2019s armed forces have the battlefield capabilities they need for both the winter and to defend their country against future Russian threats,\u2019 the Defense Department said.<\/p>\n
It added, \u2018Later this week, Secretary Austin will also host the 17th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group virtually from the Pentagon, continuing the vital work of international coordination and support for Ukraine with nearly 50 nations expected to participate.\u2019<\/p>\n
The head of European Command\/NATO\u2019s Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Christopher Cavoli is also on the trip.<\/p>\n
Austin\u2019s trip to Ukraine comes as the Pentagon continues to urge Congress \u2014 the Republican-led House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate \u2014 to pass additional funding to support Ukraine\u2019s military effort.<\/p>\n
\u2018I am pleased that the passage of another continuing resolution has put off the threat of a lapse of funding,\u2019 Austin said Friday, Nov. 17. \u2018Its enactment will ensure that our brave troops and dedicated civilian workforce will be paid through the holidays. Yet I continue to urge Congress to pass full-year appropriations, which remains the best thing that Congress can do for our national defense. As we have long made clear, operating under short-term continuing resolutions hamstrings the Department\u2019s people and programs and undermines both our national security and competitiveness.\u2019<\/p>\n
He added, \u2018I also urge Congress to take up and pass supplemental funding to strengthen our national security as soon as possible. Our supplemental request directly supports our allies and partners, including Israel and Ukraine, during a critical period and makes key investments in our defense industrial base across the country. These investments will mean greater prosperity at home and greater security abroad.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I continue to stand ready to work with Congress to keep America secure and strong.\u2019<\/p>\n
To date, Ukraine has received more than $44 billion from the U.S. and more than $35 billion from other allies in weapons, ranging from millions of bullets to air defense systems, advanced European and U.S. battle tanks and pledges for F-16 fighter jets.<\/p>\n
However, Ukraine still needs more.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh held a press briefing where she said the Pentagon has been rolling out smaller weapons packages for Ukraine due to the uncertainty on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
When asked for a preview of the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, an alliance of 54 countries that meet monthly for updates on the current conflict with Russia, Singh said an announcement was expected within the next few days.<\/p>\n
\u2018In terms of aid packages, you\u2019ve seen us roll out pretty consistently, aid packages for Ukraine. We have had to pass down our support and our security assistance for Ukraine because we don\u2019t have additional funding, because the supplemental hasn\u2019t been passed. So we just rolled out our last presidential drawdown authority, and I believe that was last week,\u2019 the deputy press secretary continued.<\/p>\n
Singh added, \u2018Look what we\u2019re when we\u2019re ready to roll out the next one. We certainly will. We know that Ukraine continues to face and continues to endeavor and its counteroffensive, and they need continued support on a regular basis. So we know that we have to do that. We know that we have to continue to meet their needs. And that\u2019s something that certainly will be discussed at the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group. But in terms of a package preview, I just don\u2019t have more for you to announce today.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n
A reporter at the press briefing also asked how long the Pentagon can support Ukraine until Congress needs to appropriate new funding.<\/p>\n
\u2018You have seen smaller packages, because we need to parse these out,\u2019 Singh said Thursday. \u2018Because we don\u2019t know when Congress is going to pass our supplemental package. I mean, frankly, that is why we requested an emergency supplemental package to provide funding for our security assistance to Ukraine and also to backfill our own stocks.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Pentagon can send about $5 billion more in weapons and equipment from its own stocks; however, it only has about $1 billion in funding to replace those stocks.<\/p>\n
\u2018The supplemental, again, is in Congress. We continue to urge Congress to pass a supplemental package together because it\u2019s an emergency request. It\u2019s not part of the budget process. And so we have a large amount that we want Congress to authorize for Ukraine and for Israel. And for our investments in the Indo-Pacific and, of course, for our own investments in our defense industrial base. So that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to continue to urge Congress to pass. But you\u2019re absolutely right. You have seen smaller packages because we need to pass these out because we don\u2019t know when Congress is going to pass our supplemental package. And so we\u2019re continuing to talk with allies and partners. We\u2019re not the only country here contributing to Ukraine\u2019s urgent battlefield needs. As you know, the Ukraine contact Group is over 50 nations. So it\u2019s not that it\u2019s just the U.S. supporting Ukraine, but the president has been very clear that we are going to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Singh was also asked to give a timeline on how long American taxpayers can expect to keep contributing money to the Ukraine-Russia war, but she was unable to do so.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m not going to forecast how long that\u2019s going to last. That certainly wouldn\u2019t do the Ukrainians any good. That would really benefit the Russians. And so I\u2019m just not going to be able to give you a timeline on how long we\u2019re going to be able to have these packages continue to go forward.\u2019<\/p>\n
Monday, Nov. 20, will be the 635th day since Russia first invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022.<\/p>\n
Fox News\u2019 Liz Friden, Jessica Sonkin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine on Monday, when he will meet with Ukrainian officials to relay a message of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and that America stands firmly behind the Eastern European country in its war with Russia. After an 11-hour train ride from Poland to Ukraine, Austin exited onto the platform, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}