The Biden administration is engaged in an 11th-hour scramble to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in additional weaponry, a massive effort that is generating concerns internally about its potential to erode U.S. stockpiles and sap resources from other flash points, officials said.
The lame-duck initiative was spurred in part by Russia’s battlefield momentum and a fear among Ukraine’s fiercest advocates that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20, there will be an abrupt shift in U.S. policy toward the war.
Yet some in the administration have taken the view that no matter what Washington does, Kyiv’s military will remain outmatched without far more soldiers to sustain its fight. And even as they accelerate arms shipments, there is growing frustration with Ukraine’s leaders, who have resisted U.S. calls to lower the country’s draft age from 25 to 18.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have captured Ukrainian territory at the fastest pace since 2022, causing alarm in Washington. Administration officials say their end-of-term weapons push — accompanied by President Joe Biden’s decision to green-light missile strikes deep into Russian territory and the deployment of antipersonnel land mines long criticized by human rights groups — can give Kyiv some breathing room. But they are urging Ukrainian leaders to use the moment to expand their military beyond the 160,000 recruits Kyiv says it needs.
“We’re absolutely going to keep sending Ukraine weapons and equipment. We know that’s vital. But so, too, is manpower at this point,” White House spokesman John Kirby said last week. “In fact, we believe manpower is the most vital need they have. So we’re also ready to ramp up our training capacity if they take appropriate steps to fill out their ranks.”
One senior administration official said that although Ukraine’s firepower had waned with the slowdown of U.S. military aid before Congress in April approved $61 billion in additional funding, that’s less of a problem now.
“The munitions gap may not be completely closed between Ukraine and Russia, but it’s gotten a whole lot better.
But on the manpower side, it’s just a question of math and physics,” this official said, speaking like others on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about sensitive U.S. assessments of the state of the battle and the Biden administration’s strategy.
