FT: US aid to Ukraine will help Ukraine launch counteroffensive in 2025, Sullivan says
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks to the press at the White House on Nov. 10, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Ukraine will look to launch a counteroffensive in 2025 with the support of the approved $61 billion aid package from the United States, as well as additional Western aid funding, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the Financial Times on May 4.
Sullivan echoed Ukraine’s hopes that the country will “move forward to recapture the territory that the Russians have taken” – the clearest such articulation as to how the Biden administration sees the war evolving in the coming months.
The Financial Times notes that any new Ukrainian offensive would require additional military aid from Western allies, including the United States. The most recent $61 billion aid package from the U.S. took months to pass through Congress amid political infighting.
The United States is currently leading talksamong Group of Seven (G7) allies to develop a military aid package to Ukraine worth up to $50 billion, Bloomberg reported on May 3. The potential package would reportedly be funded by the profits generated by accrued interest on frozen Russian assets.
Despite mounting pressures of an anticipated Russian summer offensive, Sullivan notedthat with incoming U.S. weapons supplies, Ukraine will have the capacity to “hold the line” as it faces a difficult period in the war over the next few months.
Last month, in an interview with Germany’s Bild magazine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that while there is a plan for a eventual counteroffensive, any such developments would be contingent on receiving additional aid from Western allies.
Amid a looming presidential election in the United States, questions have risen over the U.S.’s ongoing support of Ukraine is former President and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is once again elected to office.
In early April, media reported, citing undisclosed sources, that Trump had privately said he could end Russia’s war by pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea and Donbas to Moscow, which was denied by his advisor.
According to a former advisor to Trump, the former president “made it very clear” that he believed Ukraine “must be part of Russia.”
Despite his comments, Trump reportedly voiced support for House Speaker Mike Johnson, following a vote on military aid for Ukraine after months of delays, and has previously suggested providing Ukraine aid as loans.