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BERLIN — A year ago, when Washington and much of Europe were still awash in optimism that Ukraine was on the verge of repelling Russia from its territory, it seemed inconceivable that the United States would turn its back on the victim of Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
Now, even as Senate Democrats try to salvage an aid package for Ukraine, that possibility remains real. And the political moment feels a long way from 14 months ago when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine stood before a joint session of Congress, wearing his signature drab green sweater, and basked in a minute-long standing ovation.
The turnaround has surprised the White House. Even if the Senate manages to advance military aid, there are still plenty of reasons to doubt that the money will come through, including deep opposition among Republicans in the House and former <span data-wf-local-storage-key="xray-inline-tooltip" data-wf-reset-every="90" data-wf-template-id="caas-xray-inline-wafer-tooltip-template-with-close-541b6e21-4e53-3109-b5a0-875a93cc96ac" data-wf-tooltip-position="bottom" data-wf-tooltip-text="Get info without
leaving the page.”>President Donald Trump’s push for a more isolationist stance.
President Joe Biden’s aides insist they are not yet scrambling for other options.
“We’re not focused on Plan B,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said in Brussels on Wednesday after a NATO meeting with his counterparts. “We’re focused on plan A,” which he said meant passing a bipartisan aid package that will enable Ukraine to “defend effectively and to take back territory that Russia currently occupies.”
But behind the scenes there is a lot of discussion, in Washington and Europe, about other options, including seizing more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets that are stashed in Western nations — a process that is turning out to be a lot more complicated than it first seemed.
Still, U.S. officials concede there is nothing on the horizon that could match the power of a new, $60 billion congressional appropriation, which would buy bolstered air defenses, more tanks and missiles, and a huge influx of ammunition.
And, they add, the symbolism of America pulling back now could be profound.
European officials who have been dreading the possibility that Trump might be reelected and make good on his promise to withdraw from NATO are beginning to wonder, at least in private, about the reliability of the United States, no matter who is president.
If Republicans are willing to abide by Trump’s demand that they vote against continued aid to Ukraine, one senior European diplomat in Berlin asked Wednesday, why would Europe rely on Biden’s assurance that the United States would “defend every inch” of NATO territory? Even some of Trump’s former national security aides — the ones he long ago split with — are beginning to say that a failure to fund Ukraine would amount to a huge strategic win for Putin…
