U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said his country will continue to back Ukraine in its fight against Russia's unprovoked invasion even though a critical $60-billion military aid package remains stuck in the U.S. House of Representatives due to Republican opposition.
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“The United States will not let Ukraine fail,” Austin told representatives from some 50 allies of Ukraine on March 19 at the start of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
The monthly UDCG meeting, also known as the Ramstein Format, discusses ways to beef up military support for embattled Ukrainian forces as they struggle to stave off Russia's advance on the eastern front while rationing dwindling supplies of artillery ammunition.
“Ukraine’s troops face harsh conditions and hard fighting. And Ukraine’s civilians endure a constant barrage of Russian missiles and Iranian drones. But Ukraine won’t back down. And neither will the United States,” said Austin, who is on his first overseas trip since receiving treatment for prostate cancer.
He also repeated that 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the start of the war and said the invasion had cost Moscow $211 billion so far.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Austin said that Ukraine's survival "is in danger” and that he remains "fully determined to keep U.S. security assistance and ammunition flowing," calling it a "matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine, and...a matter of honor and security for America."
During the meeting, leaders from other countries promised new aid for Ukraine.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced a 500 million-euro ($543 million) package that includes 10,000 rounds of ammunition as well as 100 armored vehicles and 100 transport vehicles. The ammunition will be delivered to Ukraine very soon, Pistorius said.
"We are helping Ukraine with what it needs most in its defense against Russian aggression," he said.
Asked ahead of the meeting if Germany would reverse its refusal to supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles, Pistorius said there was "no news" about it.
As the $60 billion package remains stuck in the House, the United States on March 12 announced a one-off military aid package for Ukraine of $300 million. The amount came from the Pentagon, which had saved money on contracts, U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has said. The $300 million represents a rounding error in the Pentagon's roughly $840 billion budget.
European military aid for Ukraine has become critical for the embattled Ukrainian troops facing an enemy vastly superior in numbers and in the amount of artillery ammunition used daily on the battlefield.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told RFE/RL in an interview that in the next two weeks Ukraine will receive aid from its partners that will "suit our troops."
Umerov said the focus of the UDCG meeting was artillery, air defense, and everything related to Ukraine's need for missiles.
"We got that help and we're leaving with results," Umerov told RFE/RL. "I hope that in the near future -- within 15 days -- the unloading will already begin."
He said Ukraine also plans to increase its own production of munitions.
Asked to assess the risk of a Russian offensive from the north, Umerov said the Ukrainian military was ready for a potential attack.
"We have been fighting for 10 years now.... We are building all lines of defense," he said, adding that the same topic was discussed on March 18 in Wiesbaden, Germany, with partners who are helping strengthen Ukraine's engineering component.
On March 18, the European Council approved the creation of the Ukraine Assistance Fund and earmarked 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) for it. "With the fund, we will continue to support Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s war of aggression with whatever it takes and for as long as we need to," the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell said in a statement on March 18.
The funds will be used for the provision of both "lethal and non-lethal military equipment and training," it said.
Russian artillery, meanwhile, continued to wreak havoc in eastern Ukraine, where daily shelling has exacted a mounting death toll among Ukrainian civilians.
Russian shelling killed three civilians in Ukraine's southern region of Kherson, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on March 19, adding that two high-rise residential buildings were damaged during the shelling.
In the Donetsk region, one man was killed and five others were wounded by Russian shelling on March 19, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram.