The White House Is Shifting Its Tone on Supplying Weapons to Ukraine

The Biden administration is no longer downplaying its military assistance.

Damaged houses and Russian tanks in Bucha, a town recently recaptured by the Ukrainian forces .Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Joe Bidenā€™s national security adviser said Sunday that the United States is giving Ukraine the ā€œweapons it needs,ā€ dropping a previous White House distinction between offensive and defensive support for Ukrainian forces.

ā€œWeā€™re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns where they commit these crimes,ā€ Jake Sullivan said on ABC Newsā€™ This Week.

Sullivan made the rounds on morning shows Sunday, emphasizing the administration’s willingness to aggressively support Ukraine. On CBSā€™s Face the Nation, Sullivan credited US support with helping defeat Russian forces outside Kyiv. ā€œRussia failed,ā€ Sullivan said. ā€œAnd they failed chiefly because of the bravery and skill of the Ukrainian armed forces. But they also failed because the United States and our partners put in the hands of those armed forces advanced weapons that help beat back the Russians.ā€

The Russians have retreated after nearly encircling the Ukrainian capital and are redeploying to focus on controlling the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Russia has appointed a new commander for its forces in Ukraine, Alexander Dvornikov, who is accused of previously overseeing the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Syria, according to reports Sunday.

American commentary on the war is often focused on steps the Biden administration has declined to take due to the risk of escalation toward direct conflict with Russia, such as enforcing a no-fly zone. But Sullivanā€™s tough talk Sunday highlights the extent to which the US, responding to an effective lobbying campaign by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to domestic pressure to do more to oppose Russian aggression, has moved toward full-blown military support for Ukraine and a proxy war with Russia. Recently, the White House has appeared less concerned with provoking Russia, and has shifted from downplayed its assistance to Ukraine toward highlighting the value of US support for Kyiv.

Last month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki emphasized that the US was sending only ā€œdefensive weapons systemsā€ to Ukraine. But when asked about the distinction on Sunday, Sullivan seemed to acknowledge that he White House had dropped it. ā€œGiven the nature of the battle, how things have shifted and adjusted and what the Russians have done, frankly, killing civilians, atrocities, war crimes, we have gotten to a place in the United States, and across many members of the NATO alliance, where the key question is, what does Ukraine need and how can we provide it to them?ā€ Sullivan said on Meet the Press.

The Pentagon outlined the extent of US support in a fact sheet released Thursday. This is part of a new outpouring of armaments from NATO to help Ukraine prevail in what could be a drawn out contest for control of territory in eastern Ukraine. The United Kingdom said Saturday that it is sending 120 armored vehicles and anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine, in an announcement that followed an in-person visit to Kyiv by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Biden announced Friday that the United States would place a Patriot missile defense system in Slovakia, in a swap in which the Slovaks supplied Ukraine with a Russian-made S-300 air defense system. 

Sullivan noted that he and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier in the week ā€œspent two hours on the phone with the chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and President Zelenskyy’s top aide. And we went through every weapons system that Ukraine is seeking, in priority order. And we have developed plans to deliver those as rapidly as possible.ā€

“We will continue to work aggressively to get Ukraine what it needs to strengthen its hand on the battlefield and to strengthen its hand at the bargaining table,” he said.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate