President Trump’s decision to subject funding for Ukrainian security to extra scrutiny is stirring unease among European allies worried about Russian aggression.
“It’s not the time to decrease military or any other support to Ukraine, it’s the time to provide more support to Ukraine,” a Baltic diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner.
Trump’s national security team and budget advisers are reviewing the $250 million lawmakers appropriated this year for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program Congress established in 2015 to help fortify Kyiv’s defenses against the Russian forces that annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014. The apparent hesitancy came as a surprise to European and American analysts, despite Trump’s stated desire to strengthen ties with Russia, because the White House has been planning high-profile shows of support for Ukraine.
“There is not only bipartisan support for this in Congress, but it seemed to me that the president and the administration were asserting themselves in a very different way, so this runs absolutely contrary to that,” Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “A decision to put the Ukraine lethal assistance under review … absolutely contradicts what the president himself has said.”
Trump has boasted that he has “been much tougher on Russia than Obama,” despite Western frustration with his habit of praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and his refusal to condemn Russian interference in the 2016 elections. That claim is anchored in Trump’s 2017 decision to send lethal aid to Ukraine, beginning a flow of anti-tank Javelin missiles and other armaments to upgrade the Ukrainian military that former President Barack Obama would not approve.
Trump’s national security team has also made a point of cultivating a warm relationship with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two sides are in the process of scheduling a White House visit for Zelensky, who was supposed to meet Trump in Poland this weekend until the White House canceled the visit as Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida. National security adviser John Bolton spent two days this week in Ukraine, in part to advise Zelensky not to “rush into” any agreement with Russia pertaining to the conflict.
“I think working this through over a period of time makes sense for the new government in Ukraine,” Bolton told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an outlet backed by the United States. “That also gives time to consider exactly what Putin may now be thinking — whether there is some possibility the Russian position may change.”
But the apparent skepticism about sending another $250 million to Ukraine, 20% of which is slated for arms purchases, came just days after Trump rocked the G-7 summit in France by advocating Russia’s readmission to the world’s leading bloc of industrialized democracies. That timing left Trump particularly vulnerable to criticism.
“President Trump should stop worrying about disappointing Vladimir Putin and stand up for U.S. national security priorities,” New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday. “Any further effort by President Trump to weaken U.S. efforts to hold Russia accountable for undermining the peace, security, stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine, will be met with fierce opposition in Congress.”
Conley cautioned against assuming the delay is an olive branch to Russia, noting the White House Office of Management and Budget has been engaged in a wide-ranging review of foreign aid to identify wasteful and ineffective spending.
“But if it is a message of slowing down, then I think we do need to reflect that this would start to be considered a change in approach on both Russia strategy but specifically for Ukraine,” she said.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s team is working to prevent any major course correction, assuring the budget office that “the department has reviewed the foreign assistance package and supports it.”
But the idea that Trump might begin to view Ukraine through green eyeshades is anything but comforting for former Soviet vassal states.
“It’s dozens of millions — we’re not talking about billions — it’s dozens of millions to help Ukraine defend freedom in Europe,” the Baltic diplomat said. “It’s the threshold of the transatlantic alliance, our borders. … It saves Americans billions probably somewhere else because Ukraine is containing Russia.”
