Antony Blinken, whose days are numbered at the head of American diplomacy, is meeting this Wednesday in Brussels with NATO and European Union officials to accelerate aid to Ukraine threatened by the return of Donald Trump.
Antony Blinken arrived late Tuesday evening for a visit of less than 24 hours, the secretary of state is to have meetings with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and with his Ukrainian counterparts Andriï Sybiga and the EU Josep Borrell as well than with Kaja Kallas who will succeed Josep Borrell in a few weeks.
The purpose of this visit is clear. The aim is to convince the Europeans and NATO officials to speed up aid to Ukraine, potentially threatened by the return of Donald Trump. The EU must support Ukraine “as long as necessary, with as much military, financial and humanitarian aid as necessary”, the latter launched on Tuesday during her hearing before European parliamentarians.
More than $60 billion in military aid
Mr. Blinken’s trip to the Belgian capital takes on an urgent nature, against a backdrop of concerns from Ukraine and many capitals on the Old Continent regarding the sustainability of support for kyiv after the re-election of Donald Trump on November 5, to which is added a political crisis in Germany. The former President of the United States, who will return to the White House on January 20, is already in action.
Trump spoke with Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had a discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask him not to provoke an escalation in the war, according to the Washington Post daily. The Kremlin denied that the two men spoke to each other, a “pure invention”, insisted Moscow.
The 78-year-old American tycoon maintains doubts about what he will do regarding Ukraine. But he questioned the tens of billions of dollars spent by Washington on Ukraine – more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“Ship whatever is available”
According to the American press, he has set his sights on Republican Senator Marco Rubio to be the next Secretary of State. The latter is rather pro-Ukrainian, even if he denounced the financing of a “dead end” in Ukraine. In the meantime, outgoing President Joe Biden is seeking to accelerate the delivery of military aid to Ukraine and continue to put in place mechanisms so that the Europeans can take over.
Of the envelope voted in the spring, approximately 9.2 billion dollars remain to be allocated, namely 7.1 billion to be drawn from American arms stocks and 2.1 billion to finance arms purchase contracts. , according to the Pentagon. Washington plans to spend this money every last penny. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan raised the sum of six billion dollars on Sunday and warned of the risks of a cessation of support from the United States.
“By the end of the (outgoing) administration, they are going to try to ship whatever is available,” like armored vehicles and small arms ammunition, “that Ukraine needs and that states “The United States has it in large quantities,” Mark Cancian of the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) in the US capital told AFP.
It seems unlikely, however, that the Americans will lift their veto on the use of long-range missiles deep in Russian territory, despite kyiv’s pleas.
Antony Blinken’s visit comes after unprecedented drone attacks targeted Ukraine and the Moscow region last weekend and as thousands of North Korean troops amass in the border region Russian Kursk according to kyiv and Washington. The New York Times claimed that Moscow had massed 50,000 soldiers – including North Koreans – to try to dislodge Ukrainian troops who have controlled this part of the Kursk region for three months.
