With 10 weeks to go until Donald Trump takes over, the Joe Biden administration is looking to push out the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine, officials said.

Trump’s election victory spells immediate doubt for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, with Biden’s administration expected to sprint in its final days to ensure — insofar as possible — long-term US support.

Trump, who won an overwhelming victory in Tuesday’s election, has in the past voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion in US assistance committed for Ukraine since Moscow’s 2022 invasion.

The 78-year-old tycoon has repeatedly boasted that he can end the war in 24 hours, without explaining how.

His aides have mused about conditioning aid to Kyiv to force concessions, with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance once bluntly saying he did not care what happened to Ukraine, seeing the country as strategically insignificant compared with the global US rivalry with China.

With 10 weeks to go until Trump takes over, the Biden administration is looking to push out the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine, officials said.

The Biden team is also looking for structural ways to put European allies in greater charge of assistance to Ukraine before Trump returns, diplomats said.

In a pre-emptive “Trump-proofing” measure, NATO — the transatlantic alliance that has been criticized by the president-elect — has already agreed to take over from the United States in coordinating aid to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also moved quickly with Trump in hopes of preserving ties with Kyiv’s top backer.

Zelensky called him Wednesday, offering flattery on his “tremendous victory” and voicing hope for “strong and unwavering US leadership” to bring a “just peace.”

– Not so simple –

Brian Taylor, a Russia expert at Syracuse University, said that if Trump seeks a direct role in Ukraine-Russia talks, he will “quickly find out that the details and the nuances are not so simple as simply telling everyone to stop shooting at each other.”

Even a deal to freeze the grinding conflict raises questions on where to draw battle lines, with Ukraine’s military fighting in regions that Russia says it has annexed.

At the same time, Taylor doubted that Europe could immediately replace US military assistance.

“I’m not sure Europe has the stomach or the institutional capacity to just step up and fill that role instantly, although maybe it will develop that capacity over time,” he said.

Olga Khakova, of the Atlantic Council, said that Biden could lift restrictions on use of Western weapons on Russian soil, a long-running demand of Kyiv, and boost Ukraine’s air defenses to protect its energy infrastructure.

Boosting Ukraine could also appeal to Trump by giving him a stronger negotiating hand, she said.

“Much is still unknown, but this offers a unique opportunity to negotiate from a position of strength and decisiveness and boldness,” Khakova said.

– Bringing both to table –

Leon Aron, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump could ultimately be disappointed by Putin’s refusal to budge on demands, resulting in a deal politically unpalatable even in Trump’s Washington.

For now, Trump’s victory mostly means uncertainty, said Brian Finucane, a former State Department official now at the International Crisis Group.

“Further substantial US military aid seems doubtful, but Trump himself has been vague about how specifically he would deal with the conflict,” Finucane said.

Representative Michael Waltz, a Republican army veteran seen as a contender for a national security position, said in a pre-election interview that Trump could find ways to press Putin, including by tightening enforcement of sanctions on Russian energy exports.

“I think that will get Putin to the table. We have leverage, like taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine as well,” Waltz told National Public Radio.

Trump, he said, is “very focused on ending the war rather than perpetuating it.”

AFP

The President had unveiled the statue of himself during a tour of the country’s Western Region.

The statue, which stands in front of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, is meant to honour the president’s development initiatives, according to Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the region’s minister.

He unveiled the statue during a visit dubbed a “thank-you tour” on Wednesday, which also coincided with the promotion of key projects initiated under his leadership.

After unveiling the statue, many Ghanaians took to social media to mock the monument, calling it an act of “self-glorification.”

Opposition MP Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah in a post on X said, “President Akufo-Addo’s unveiling of a statue of himself at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital raises serious questions about his priorities and commitment to the people of the Western Region.

“This extravagant display of self-aggrandizement comes at a time when the region has been largely neglected, with pressing needs and concerns left unaddressed.

“The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-NPP government continues to take the Western Region for granted. This grandiose gesture is a misplaced priority.

“The people of the Western Region deserve better than these self-serving displays.”

Akufo-Addo, who is set to step down in January 2025 after serving two terms, has claimed that he had fulfilled 80% of his campaign promises, a claim many Ghanaians have countered.

Despite the president’s praise of his administration’s achievements, many Ghanaians are questioning the significance of the President’s statue, especially as several major projects initiated by his administration remain uncompleted.

Another X user was quoted as saying, “It would have been better if the president had let history recognize his work, rather than celebrating himself now.”

Some Ghanaians have called for the statue to be removed after Akufo-Addo leaves office, with photos of the monument going viral.

During his tour, the President reportedly emphasized his policy to abolish secondary school fees, which he touts as one of his administration’s biggest achievements.

His visit to the Western Region also ties into the campaign efforts of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), as the country prepares for next month’s general election.

Despite the outrage against the unveiling of his statue, Akufo-Addo urged voters in the region to support his vice president, Mahamudu Bawumia, who will be the NPP’s candidate in the upcoming election.

He promised that a vote for Bawumia will ensure the continuation of his policies and development projects.

The British government said on Thursday it had imposed its biggest sanctions package against Russia for 18 months, targeting people involved in the Ukraine war, African mercenary groups, and a nerve agent attack on British soil.

The foreign ministry said it had sanctioned 56 bodies and individuals, aiming to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort and Russia’s “malign activity globally”.

Among them were 10 entities based in China said to be supplying machinery and components for the Russian military.

“Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine,” British foreign minister David Lammy said.

The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most of the measures were aimed at companies based in Russia, China, Turkey, and Kazakhstan, accused of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the supply of machine tools, microelectronics, and components for drones.

They include firms that European intelligence sources believe to be part of a Russian attempt to establish a weapons programme in China, according to a Reuters report in September.

Britain also said the latest sanctions would address Russian activity in Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic by targeting three private mercenary groups with links to the Kremlin, including the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, and 11 individuals.

Amongst the individuals sanctioned was Denis Sergeev, whom British police have charged over the murder attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018.
Sergeev, who Britain said was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov, was one of three Russians said by Britain to have been GRU military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the attack.

Last month, a public inquiry into the death of a woman who was accidentally poisoned by the nerve agent heard that Skripal believed Mr Putin himself had ordered the Novichok attack.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations that it was involved.

(Reuters/NAN)