Europe makes final appeal to Biden for Ukraine aid before Trump term begins

By Ania Nussbaum and Donato Paolo Mancini 

Europe is making a last-ditch appeal to the outgoing Biden administration to boost American support for Ukraine in order to solidify Kyiv’s position as much as possible before the presidential term ends in January. 

Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, has said he’d seek a quick deal between Kyiv and Moscow, raising concerns in Europe that such an accord would be disadvantageous to Ukraine and possibly entrench gains made my Russia since it invaded in 2022.  

European leaders and officials have asked the US to provide Ukraine with more weapons and artillery, impose additional sanctions on key Russian revenue streams and target Moscow’s ability to acquire banned technologies used in weapons, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of the European requests have been informal in nature, the people said.  

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a hastily arranged trip to Brussels on Wednesday to reassure NATO and European Union allies that the US will intensify its efforts to send resources to Ukraine ahead of the inauguration of Trump, who has strongly criticized the scale of the US effort to defend Kyiv. 

The resources he mentioned — money, ammunition, weapons — mainly come from a $61 billion package passed by the US Congress earlier this year. He added that “every dollar at our disposal” will be rushed through.  

Even though time is running short for Biden to act on the requests, the US is already working on adopting new sanctions against Russia’s oil fleet and North Korea — which has sent troops to aid Moscow’s war effort – by the end of November, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.   

Spokespeople from the State and Treasury departments declined to comment.  

Europe has accelerated efforts to protect its interests, particularly when it comes to Ukraine’s war efforts, before Trump becomes president. Trump has taken an antagonistic stance toward Europe and in September, he sidestepped a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to succeed in its effort to expel the invading Russians. 

“The next few weeks will be critical to put Ukraine in a strong position,” Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, told Bloomberg. He said a deal negotiated by Trump “may try to freeze the conflict on the lines where Russia now occupies 20% of Ukrainian territory.” 

The US has committed to ensuring that all the money for Ukraine that it has at its disposal will be used before Trump takes office. However, the delivery of some weapons could take many months and stretch beyond Biden’s time in office.  

“We are going to do as much as we can to support Ukraine before the new team takes over,” US Army’s Acquisition Chief Douglas Bush said in an interview. “But at that point that’ll be their judgment to make.”   

Several EU leaders have also been pushing the US to allow Ukraine use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, a move that Kyiv and those allies believe would significantly improve the war-torn country’s ability to defend itself from Moscow’s attacks on critical infrastructure. 

Biden has so far resisted the request while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has openly opposed it. People familiar with the US position said the view is that it would have limited impact on the battlefield and is not worth the escalation risk. 

“When we engage with our American friends and partners, I really hope we’ll continue our support to Ukrainians, including on deep strikes, to use legitimate defense when targets are used to strike Ukraine’s defense and infrastructure,” France’s Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said in an interview.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the US and its NATO allies against allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia using weapons that they’ve supplied. Ukraine also wants to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and French SCALPs to carry out the strikes. 

For its part, the EU is bracing for a disruptive Trump presidency amid concerns that the bloc will need to boost aid to Kyiv due to reduced American support. It’s seeking to accelerate talks with the UK on a new defense and security pact, Bloomberg reported earlier. 

Even though the EU is the biggest provider of aid to Ukraine, Kyiv relies on the US for crucial military resources such as F-16s and ATACM long-range missiles. The EU allocated €118 billion ($126 billion) since the start of the conflict, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.    

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