John Kirby, the former Pentagon spokesperson, told VOA’s Ukrainian service on Thursday the United States is “focused on making sure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself and its sovereignty.”
Kirby, who recently became the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, said since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States has provided nearly $6 billion worth of assistance, including military equipment, such as HIMARS, high mobility artillery rocket systems.
Ukraine determines “what operations they're going to conduct. And that's their right to the material that they get from the United States. [It is] now theirs. It's Ukrainian property, and they get to determine how they're going to use it,” Kirby said.
Here is the interview, edited for brevity and clarity.
We know that American HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems] arrived today in Ukraine. What impact do we expect them to make on a battlefield at this stage?
The big difference that these HIMARS, which stands for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, can make is distance, its range. It's giving the Ukrainians the benefit of farther standoff from Russian forces as they continue to fight them every single day which is now a much more concentrated geographic area.
The United States is providing Ukraine unprecedented levels of military assistance. Still, some in Kyiv and Washington are saying it's not enough, it's not fast enough. Do you think the administration is providing enough weapons to Ukraine to make a difference on the battlefield?
All these systems are making a difference. Even today, they're making a difference. And the Ukrainians will tell you that, and it's not just the big systems. It's the small arms and ammunition, which they're using literally every day in this fight with the Russians. So it's already making an impact. And we're obviously the largest donor of security assistance to Ukraine or any other nation around the world ... almost $6 billion since the beginning of the invasion. So it's a lot of material that's going in and the president has made clear that we're committed to continuing that assistance going forward.
Should we expect more HIMARS to be sent to Ukraine? And what is the absolute maximum amount that United States can provide HIMARS and MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems], given its own stocks?
I do think you'll continue to see systems like HIMARS going in in future deliveries. I think that that's very likely. I don't want to get ahead of specific announcements here. But again, the president was very clear with [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. So once again, we're going to help them as much as we can as fast as we can. And I'll tell you, the material is going in at record speed. … It's just unprecedented the speed with which security assistance is actually reaching the front lines in Ukraine. There's literally shipments going in every single day. And it's not just from the United States, we are the biggest donor. But more than 40 other nations around the world are also contributing security assistance in some type of form to Ukraine. [U.S. Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin just held the most recent Ukraine contact group in Brussels last week, almost 50 nations showed up, not just from Europe, but from around the world, to look at ways they can continue to continue to support Ukraine and their ability to defend themselves.
John, could you please clarify what the Biden Administration is giving Ukraine weapons for: to defend themselves or to be able to defeat Russian forces, push them outside Ukraine and ultimately win the war?
We are really focused on making sure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself and its sovereignty, its people, its territorial integrity. And, obviously, the Ukrainians are in this fight. They determine what operations they're going to conduct. And that's their right. The material that they get from the United States is now theirs. It's Ukrainian property, and they get to determine how they're going to use it. Now, obviously, we want to see Ukraine's sovereignty fully respected, we want to see Ukraine's territorial integrity fully restored. But how that gets determined, and it should be determined by Mr. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin ending this war. But Mr. Zelenskyy is going to get to determine what victory looks like.
If Ukrainians determined that they want to win this war, push Russians back to the February 23 lines, would you also support that and for them to use the provided weapons to conduct counteroffensives?