As high-ranking White House officials argued the conflict in Ukraine has to have a diplomatic solution, media outlets close to US intelligence reported on Thursday of increasing concerns about Kiev’s hard-line position amid the deteriorating situation on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defense minister vowed to fight until total victory.
The US will continue to help Ukraine “to the maximum extent possible,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday, “first on the battlefield, and then, ultimately at the negotiating table. We think this has to end with diplomacy.”
Sullivan was speaking at the Center for New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, DC-based lobby group close to the Democratic Party.
CNAS is funded by the likes of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, which stand to make huge revenues from replenishing American weapons stocks after the conflict. It also received at least $500,000 last year from the US Department of Defence to promote its interests.
It was at CNAS that the Pentagon’s policy chief Colin Kahl revealed earlier this week the US would send Ukraine guided missiles for the HIMARS rocket launchers.
While NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has suggested that Ukraine might have to give up some territory for peace, Sullivan said such a decision was entirely up to Kiev.
“We are not going to be pressing them to make territorial concessions. We think that’s frankly wrong,” he told CNAS.