US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the sending of air defense systems to Ukraine, on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington.
“Russia will not win,” the American president forcefully declared in a highly anticipated speech, following questions about his ability to defend the colours of the Democratic camp, four months before the presidential election.
He was participating with the leaders, or their representatives, of the 32 NATO countries in a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance.
In a joint statement, several NATO countries, including the United States, confirmed the dispatch of a total of five of these systems, including four Patriot batteries. This American-designed surface-to-air missile system is particularly effective in intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
The fifth air defense system announced Tuesday is a battery of SAMP/T, Franco-Italian missile systems, which Italy had already said it was ready to deliver.
Only one Patriot battery, the one donated by the United States, represents a novelty compared to what kyiv has been promised in recent weeks, after repeated appeals from President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The latter, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday, was due to give a speech later in the evening at the Ronald Reagan Institute.
Deadly strikes
Ukraine was the target of deadly Russian strikes on Monday that left more than 30 dead and devastated the country’s largest children’s hospital.
The Allies also pledged to provide additional Patriot or equivalent systems “this year,” and “dozens” of tactical air defense systems “in the coming months.”
“Today is Washington,” Zelensky said earlier in his daily video address. “We are fighting for more air defenses” and “more F-16 jets,” which are expected to be delivered to Ukraine soon, he added.
The United States will also reschedule the delivery of already scheduled missile batteries, so that kyiv will have “hundreds of additional surface-to-air interceptors throughout the next year,” according to a joint statement from the United States, the Netherlands, Romania, Germany, Italy and Ukraine.
Moment of respite
Russian strikes have killed dozens of people and already destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy capacity.
As the guest of honor at the anniversary ceremony at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, where the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949, Joe Biden was able to enjoy a moment of respite in an election campaign that is becoming more and more of a Stations of the Cross every day.
Calls are growing, including within his Democratic camp, for the 81-year-old president to give up running again after the calamitous debate at the end of June against Donald Trump, where he appeared very tired and confused.
The 78-year-old Republican billionaire did not hold back from commenting on this anniversary ceremony, assuring on his social network Truth Social that without him, “there probably would be no more NATO now.” He thus credited the commitments made by the Europeans to spend more on their defense.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recalled in his speech that the Alliance was not a “given” but the “result of deliberate choices and difficult decisions.” The same goes for support for Ukraine, which requires “costs and risks,” he recalled.
“No option without cost”
“There are no cost-free options with an aggressive Russia as a neighbor,” he said, recalling that the “highest cost and the greatest risk would be if Russia wins in Ukraine.”
On the occasion of this summit, kyiv also hopes, but without illusions, that its candidacy to join the Atlantic Alliance will advance in Washington.
Ukraine wants to receive a formal invitation to this effect, but several countries, including the United States, are opposed to it.
On the other hand, it should obtain that this promise of adhesion is “irreversible”, according to a diplomat, specifying however that certain conditions would be added.
Russia said on Tuesday that it would follow with “maximum attention” this summit marking the 75th anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance.