Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday that the Pentagon’s fiscal 2017 budget request will include “new investments” to defend Europe from Russian aggression.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, Carter said the budget, expected to be rolled out in early February, will include defenses for Europe that the U.S. has not had to make in decades.
“It makes new investments that sadly we now have to make in the defense of Europe and NATO territory as a consequence of Russia’s aggressive behavior which we’ve seen in Ukraine,” he said. “For a quarter century, we haven’t had to make those investments, now we will.”
He also said the budget would fully fund the nation’s mission against the Islamic State and the rebalance to the Pacific.
Russian-backed separatists annexed the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine almost two years ago. Violence there continues today as the U.S. provides resources to Ukraine, like blankets and night-vision goggles.
Congress has repeatedly authorized the administration to send lethal, defense aide to the Ukrainians, but so far, President Obama has declined to step up the assistance he provides to Ukraine.
A bipartisan group of senators last year called for the U.S. to arm Ukrainians after Russia violated the Minsk cease fire.
“With the potential of such an unacceptable outcome imposed by force, thousands already killed and wounded, and hundreds of thousands displaced, it is time to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine and to consider imposing additional sanctions and penalties that will increase the cost of Putin’s actions,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.
The annual defense bill for fiscal 2016 included $300 million for “security assistance and intelligence support” for the Ukrainian military in its fight against the Russians, according to a release from the Senate Armed Services Committee.
