White House sends Congress $33B request for Ukraine

Our commitment to Ukraine will be tested. Americans must stay strong.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/27/america-must-maintain-ukraine-commitment-despite-costs

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv.

The next day in Germany, Austin opened a meeting of defense officials from more than 40 countries allied with Ukraine with a statement that would have been astonishing at the outset of the conflict, given conventional perceptions of Russia’s military power and Ukraine’s relative weakness.

“We’re here to help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion — and to build up Ukraine’s defenses for tomorrow’s challenges,” Austin said.

[...] Ukraine will need more than weapons. A senior Biden administration official said that in addition to military aid, Ukraine seeks assistance to finance its government. A nation whose economy has been shattered by war requires help in maintaining the rudiments of public services.

Ukrainian authorities, the official said, estimate that for Ukraine to keep functioning, outside help might have to run as high as $5 billion a month. Military aid could represent a comparable amount.

NATO allies will also have to replace weaponry going to Ukraine from their own stockpiles. Austin spoke Tuesday of what the effort to help Ukraine “will take from our defense industrial bases” and the need to meet “our own requirements and those of our allies and partners.”

The United States will not have to finance all of this alone. European nations are expected to cover roughly a third of the costs, and democratic allies elsewhere another third.

Biden Could Turn the Ukraine War Into a Global Conflict
▻https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/29/russia-ukraine-war-biden-endgame

With his strategy to “weaken” Russia, the U.S. president may be turning the Ukraine war into a global one.

The U.S. is expanding its goals in Ukraine. That’s dangerous.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/11/ukraine-war-expansion-risks-nuclear

Fortunately, there is an alternative, one that is consistent with continued substantial military support to Ukraine. The West should frame its infusion of aid as a means to help Kyiv achieve an acceptable settlement. These military resources can help Ukraine regain portions of its lost territory in the south and east and better preserve its economic and institutional relationships with Europe in whatever deal Kyiv eventually makes to end the war. Policymakers will have to be flexible as they assess prospective settlements, but President Biden himself recently broached the key idea, arguing that “Congress should quickly provide the requested funding to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”

Effectively shaping a negotiated outcome to the war will also require the West to put diplomatic pressure on Kyiv to come to that deal sooner rather than later. This includes demonstrating a willingness to turn off the spigot of military aid if needed. The present tranche should be given time to work its effect, but its ultimate purpose should be to hasten the conclusion of a war that carries awful risks and tragic humanitarian consequences for all involved.