National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the Ukraine aid package, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support but remains in limbo, could be a major threat to U.S. military production amid concerns about shortages. He said it was extremely important.
Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Sullivan to respond to concerns expressed by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) at last week’s Munich Security Conference. Mr. Vance reportedly missed a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which he advocated a “negotiated peace” with Russia and warned that the U.S. would support a war in Eastern Europe; This raised concerns that the United States was not producing enough munitions. In the Middle East, where there is a conflict between Israel and Hamas, if China were to invade Taiwan, “and potentially there could be a crisis in East Asia as well.”
“What is the president’s plan to rebuild this disparity in weapons so we can help our allies and protect ourselves?” Bream said in a bitter dispute with China over Taiwan. He asked, citing a recent report by Defense News that claimed the United States would run out of critical ammunition just eight days after the war began.
“We have found in the last two years, since the start of the Ukraine war, since Biden took office, that the cupboard is not as full as it should be based on the underinvestment of the past 20 years. From the beginning of our administration, we have worked to build our defense industrial base and increase production of critical military systems,” Sullivan said. “And three years into the Biden administration, we have accomplished far more than we did when he took office.”
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National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the Senate-approved Ukraine policy will ensure the United States can expand military production. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Second, this bill, the bipartisan bill that the Senate just passed, is the best answer to your question. “This is to ensure that we have the means necessary to stop our adversaries, anywhere in the world, at any time,” Sullivan continued. “If we don’t pass this bill, there will be less money going to 40 of the 50 states in the United States that currently produce critical military supplies. We have to get that money out.”
In his speech, Vance said the United States is considering increasing production of 150mm rounds to 100,000 rounds per month by the end of 2025, while Russia is “currently producing close to 500,000 rounds per month. ” he said.
“So the problem here with Ukraine is that America is not producing enough weapons, Europe is not producing enough weapons, and that reality is that the American political will and our “It’s much more important than how much money we print and send to Europe,” Vance said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing increasing pressure to vote on billions of dollars in additional U.S. aid to Ukraine. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Appearing on several other network news programs Sunday morning, Sullivan asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to bring to a vote billions of dollars more in U.S. aid to Ukraine. I am calling on you to do so.
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“Ukrainians are not lacking in courage or courage. Right now, they are in short supply of bullets,” Sullivan acknowledged earlier in the show. “The way to fill that gap is for Congress to pass, on a bipartisan basis, funding that will give us the tools we need to ensure that Ukraine succeeds and Russia fails in this conquest. “We believe we can do that. And we do.” If the Speaker passes the bill, the bipartisan Senate vote could be replicated in the House. ”
On February 23, 2024, Ukrainian soldiers fire toward Marinka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, as the second anniversary of the war approaches. (Diego Herrera Calcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Friday, the United States and the European Union announced hundreds of charges against Russia in connection with the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony last week. new sanctions have been imposed. The U.S. government has imposed nearly 600 new sanctions against Russia and its war machine, the largest single round of sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
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President Biden on Friday called on Congress to pass a Ukraine aid bill, criticizing Prime Minister Johnson for giving the House a two-week recess while Russia occupied Ukrainian territory for the first time in months. “They have to come back and get this done, because history will never forget their failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
