Ramstein Air Base, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Donald Trump’s return to the White House would open “a new chapter” and reiterated his call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia into peace.” . He made the call as the Biden administration announced what will likely be its last major military aid package to Ukraine — a pledge of weapons and other support worth $500 million.
Zelensky spoke at a meeting of about 50 allies at the US military air base at Ramstein in Germany, the last such meeting before Trump takes office on January 20. His imminent return to the White House has cast doubt on future American support for Ukraine’s war effortgiven the precedent favorable remarks on authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s promise to quickly end the war nearly three years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.
Although he has given no clear indication of how he plans to do this, many in Ukraine and Europe fear that Trump will not keep his promise by withholding aid to Ukraine and suspending its aid to Ukraine. push Zelensky to negotiate a truce which allows Russia to maintain control of part of the vast territory it occupies in the Donbass region, eastern Ukraine.
“It is clear that a new chapter is opening for Europe and the whole world — in just 11 days, a moment when we must cooperate even more, rely even more on each other and achieve even greater results together “important,” Zelensky said, adding that he saw it as “a time of opportunity.”
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As this bitter war approaches the three-year mark, which it will reach on February 24, Zelensky reiterated his call for Western allies to send troops to help Ukraine.
“Our goal is to find as many instruments as possible to force Russia into peace,” he said at the meeting. “I believe that such a deployment of partner contingents is one of the best instruments.”
The United States, under President Joe Biden, has been Ukraine’s largest wartime supporter, providing military aid worth more than $65 billion since February 2022. The U.S. Secretary of State Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who launched the Ramstein format shortly after the start of the war, announced the new military aid program on Thursday.
The aid, which includes a wide range of missiles and other weapons and equipment, as well as provisions for services, training and transportation, will be the 74th such program provided to Ukraine from military stockpiles existing Americans since Mr. Biden took office, the state said. » said the ministry in a press release.
“The United States and more than 50 countries are united to ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in the statement.
Ukraine’s war against invading Russian forces “matters to all of us,” Austin said, opening the 25th meeting of Ukraine’s Defense Contact Group. “We all have a stake in ensuring that autocrats cannot put their imperial ambitions ahead of the fundamental rights of free and sovereign peoples.”
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she hoped the United States would continue to support Ukraine. Otherwise, she added, the EU is ready to take the lead.
“I’m really sure that all the other members, and I hope also the United States, are ready to continue their support for Ukraine,” Kallas said as she headed to the Ramstein meeting.
At this point, she told reporters, “we shouldn’t really speculate” about future U.S. support. But she said it “is not in America’s interests for Russia to be the most powerful force in the world.”
But she added that “the European Union is also ready to assume this leadership if the United States is not willing to do so.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces are now engaged in fierce battlesseeking to secure their battlefield positions before Trump’s inauguration.
Trump has long criticized NATO allies for spending too little on the bloc’s common defense. This week, it sparked new concern in refuse to rule out military action to take Greenlandan autonomous territory of Denmark, member of the EU and NATO, under American control, with the Panama Canal.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said allies must help Ukraine reach a position of strength ahead of any possible ceasefire or peace talks.
“We need to get Ukraine into the best possible position so that one day, when Ukraine-initiated negotiations begin on how to resolve this conflict, it will be in the best possible position to do so,” he declared. “And then when these negotiations end, it will be looked at, in a sense, whether it’s a good deal or not. And if it’s not a good deal, it will be monitored by the Chinese, the North Koreans, Iran, obviously, Russia.
“The whole world is watching,” Rutte stressed.
