Blinken helms last-minute rush of support to Ukraine before Trump takes office

BRUSSELS - The Biden administration will rush as much military assistance as possible to Ukraine while it remains in office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday as he met a slew of European security officials in Brussels to prepare a strategy of support for Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump enters the Oval Office.

Trump has vowed to put a quick end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Kyiv and some European capitals believe could force Ukraine to make painful concessions to the Kremlin. His victory has set off a scramble among the security establishment in Europe to try to bolster support for Ukraine - and added to a weary recognition that negotiations with Russia could be on the horizon, and not on terms favorable to Kyiv.

Blinken’s day-long trip to Brussels included meetings with top NATO, European Union and Ukrainian officials, and was intended mostly as a joint effort to develop a post-election strategy rather than a moment to present a fully developed vision to the public, officials said. The current U.S. administration faces the challenge of finding strategies on Ukraine that aren’t easily reversible by Trump once he is in power, and there are few easy answers.

The Biden administration wants “to focus our efforts on ensuring that Ukraine has the money, the munitions and the mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025 or to be able to negotiate a peace from a position of strength,” Blinken told reporters at NATO’s glassy headquarters in Brussels after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and alliance ambassadors.

Since the election, the Pentagon has been rushing to send Ukraine the full range of military aid that Congress approved in a $61 billion package in April, so that it is physically located inside Ukraine before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. The Biden administration has also been the lead coordinator for non-U.S. military aid to Ukraine, but it is working to transfer some of those responsibilities to NATO and to European countries, an effort that began even before the election.

And U.S. officials are pushing Europeans and others to increase their aid for Ukraine amid doubts about how much Washington will do in the future.

“The president has determined that we push every dollar out the door that we have at our disposal,” Blinken said, referring to the rush of military aid to Ukraine.

Blinken said he was convinced that “support will continue; and not only continue, I expect it to increase, and that our partners will continue to more than pick up their share of the burden.”

Despite Blinken’s effort to focus on the positive regarding continued Western support for Ukraine, many European officials believe that the conflict is rapidly entering a new phase. Nearly three years after the fighting began, Russia is making steady advances on the battlefield as Ukraine struggles to find the troops to maintain its defense. North Korean forces have also joined the conflict on Russia’s side, further increasing pressure on Kyiv.

Fueled in part by the Trump victory, some of Kyiv’s European backers increasingly think that some form of territorial concessions may be necessary in negotiations to halt the war - a view that would have been heretical a year ago - and officials say they must boost aid to Ukraine to ensure the country is in a strong position in any future talks. Their focus is increasingly turning toward the Western security guarantees for Ukraine that would help keep Russia at bay and prevent the restarting of the war.

Ukrainian leaders, while publicly welcoming Trump’s victory and declaring their bipartisan ties to Washington, have also said that strength against Russia is the best way to maintain security in Europe and around the world.

“Appeasement will not work. Strength will work,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Wednesday ahead of a meeting with Blinken.

The increasing Western openness to territorial concessions has spooked the NATO nations that border Russia, which have the most at stake if Russia is emboldened to keep pushing against its western frontiers.

“The ‘peace agreements’ being floated would condemn millions of people to misery, occupation and fates worse than death,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote last week on X. “Talk of ‘recovery’ is hollow if Ukraine is left vulnerable, waiting for the next attack. Investments will not flow, refugees will not return.”

On the campaign trail, Trump stoked fears about NATO when he declared he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to allies that don’t spend enough on their militaries.

European policymakers worry his bashing of NATO could undermine the Western military alliance, even if few believe he would formally withdraw the United States. Diplomats said European allies were putting a brave face on the situation and trying to make contingency plans to support Ukraine while also hoping to win Trump over.

“During President Trump’s first term, America’s military presence in Europe actually increased,” a European diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. “If he stays in NATO but he pulls troops from Europe, or if there’s a wider war and he sits on the sidelines, does it matter if the U.S. is still formally at NATO?”

At NATO headquarters, Blinken also issued a broader defense of U.S. support for the alliance, in an implicit message to Trump.

“The best way to defend our countries, to prevent wars, to have security, is through the investments we’re making in NATO and in our other alliances and partnerships,” Blinken said. NATO’s mutual defense guarantee “is the strongest possible deterrent to war. It’s the best way to prevent war in the first place.”

Blinken’s visit to Brussels is the first stop in a multi-continental tour of the post-election world. Later Wednesday he planned to fly to Peru to meet with Asian and Latin American leaders, and then he plans to travel to Brazil alongside President Joe Biden to meet leaders of Group of 20 world economies.

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Ellen Francis contributed to this report.