US securing more air defense for Ukraine, NSA’s Sullivan says
President Joe Biden will meet his Ukrainian counterpart at the U.N. General Assembly to discuss Ukraine’s strategy for the war ahead of the U.S. elections, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
With little more than four months before a new U.S. president is sworn in, “we are going to treat each single one of those days preciously when it comes to supporting Ukraine,” Sullivan said via a video link to the annual Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, organized by businessman Victor Pinchuk.
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“I believe that we’re at a vital moment, at a crossroads,” Sullivan said of the Biden meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting at UNGA.
Zelenskyy, who’s repeatedly criticized allies for the slow supply of promised weapons, has said he’ll lay out a “victory plan” when he meets with Biden that would force Russia to halt its full-scale invasion, though he hasn’t offered specifics.
Ukraine’s leader said he would also brief the U.S. presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, on the proposal.
Ukraine is pressing its allies to allow the use of Western weapons to strike deeper inside Russia to target military objects that have been moved further back from the nations’ border.
“Our job is to put Ukraine in a strong position on the battlefield so that they are in a strong position at the negotiating table,” Sullivan said. “Having a conversation that puts all of the pieces together” is what the White House hopes to bring together at the New York meeting.
Sullivan warned that any peace proposal suggested for Ukraine that ran counter to “fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, democracy and freedom” wouldn’t be sustainable.
Ukraine has to be “in the lead when it comes to diplomacy and negotiations,” he said.
