US Is Securing More Air Defense for Ukraine, NSA Sullivan Says

President Joe Biden will meet his Ukrainian counterpart at the UN General Assembly to discuss Ukraine’s strategy for the war ahead of the US elections, said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

With little more than four months before a new US 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, organized by businessman Victor Pinchuk.

“I believe that we’re at a vital moment, at a crossroads,” Sullivan said of the Biden meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy meeting at UNGA.

Zelenskiy, 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 US 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. 

Kremlin forces recently stepped up missile attacks on Ukraine, damaging its energy facilities and causing blackouts across the country. 

Russian ground troops are advancing in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk as the war moves through its third year, outnumbering Kyiv’s army in personnel and ammunition. The strategic town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk is of “unique concern,” Sullivan said.

“I meet with my team every single day to think about what tools we need to put into place to help stabilize the front and make sure that those grinding advances by the Russians are met with stiff resistance,” Sullivan said. 

“We are currently working on a substantial package, pulling together a range of different capabilities that we are going to try to get out the door before the end of this month.”

Ukraine has repeatedly called for more air-defense systems and the US is “in the process right now of securing those from partners,” Sullivan said. 

Kyiv also needs to build more concrete barriers around energy transformers and substations to protect them from Russian drones, Sullivan said, adding that “we’re trying to deliver the tools to be able for them to build that out around more energy infrastructure.”

The US has made it a priority to help protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, Sullivan said. “Russia has proved completely brazen about its attacks on civilian energy infrastructure,” he added.

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