Ukraine is on its way to being able to “stand on its own feet” militarily, and more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the US were to withdraw its support under a different president, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
Blinken for the first time directly addressed the possibility that former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could win the November election and back away from commitments to Ukraine, as Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke on the phone Friday.
The US, under President Joe Biden, has been the most important supporter of Ukraine’s more than two-year battle against invading Russian forces.
Photo: AFP
Trump’s public comments have varied between criticizing US backing for Ukraine’s defense and supporting it, while his running mate, US Senator J.D. Vance, has been a leader of Republican efforts to block what have been billions in US military and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.
Trump said his telephone conversation with Zelenskiy was “very good,” and again vowed to bring about a deal to end the war with Russia — although without saying how he would do it.
He wrote on Truth Social that he appreciated Zelenskiy “for reaching out,” and promised Russia and Ukraine would “come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity.”
Zelenskiy confirmed the meeting on X, saying that he had congratulated Trump for winning the Republican presidential nomination at his party’s convention in Milwaukee this week.
“Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror,” Zelenskiy said.
“We agreed ... to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting,” he said.
Blinken said that any new administration would have to take into account strong bipartisan backing in the US Congress for Ukraine in the interests of countering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to expand Moscow’s territory and influence.
“Every administration has an opportunity, of course, to set its own policy. We can’t lock in the future,” Blinken said, speaking to an audience of US policymakers and others at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
However, he pointed to the security agreements that the US and more than 20 other allies — including some NATO partners, Japan and the EU — signed at a NATO summit in Washington this month.
“Were we to renege on that... I suppose that’s possible, but happily we’ve got another 20 some-odd countries that are doing the same thing,” Blinken said.
Ukraine itself was on a trajectory to ensure it “stands on its own feet militarily, economically, democratically,” Blinken said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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