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By Lloyd J. Austin III and Antony J. Blinken
Mr. Austin is the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Blinken is the Secretary of State.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked the world with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago. He planned to overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected government, install a Kremlin puppet regime, and denounce the West as weak, divided, and diminished.
After more than 1,000 days of Mr. Putin’s reckless war of choice, he has failed to achieve a single one of his strategic goals. Russia’s power and influence are greatly diminished; it couldn’t even prop up a valued client like the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Meanwhile, Ukraine stands strong and defiant as a free and sovereign democracy, with an economy rooted in the West.
All of this is a testament to the resilience of the Ukrainian troops and the strength of the Ukrainian people. It is also a product of unwavering American leadership, which has rallied allies and partners around the world to help Ukraine in the face of the Kremlin’s imperial onslaught. We deserve to build on this historic success, not waste it.
Putin assumed that the world would sit idly by as he sent his troops across the border into Ukraine. He was wrong. The United States has mobilized about 50 countries around the world to help Ukraine protect itself and uphold the basic principle that borders cannot be redrawn by force. One of us, Secretary Austin, convened the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a global coalition that coordinated the military for Ukraine, 25 times. Its members have committed $126 billion in direct security assistance to Ukraine, nearly a portion of which comes from non-U. S. member countries.
As a percentage of GDP, more than a dozen members of tactile organizations now provide more security assistance to Ukraine than to the United States. And those investments in Ukraine generate returns on investment here, strengthening our defense trade base and creating jobs. Putin’s aggression even produced the end results he sought to avoid: NATO is now bigger, more powerful, and more united than ever.
As a result, Ukraine has held out against the world’s second-largest military, despite Putin’s reckless escalations and irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling. Ukraine fought brilliantly even as China, the world’s second-largest economy, subsidized Putin; while Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, has armed it with missiles and drones; and North Korea, the world’s most infamous nuclear-armed rogue state, provided it with ammunition and some 10,000 troops.
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