Former Trump national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien argued on Monday that the Biden administration has been too slow in getting military support for Ukraine.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has gone on for nearly 2 1/2 years and is likely to continue into the next year and past November’s election, putting significance on O’Brien’s insight as to what a potential second term could include from a foreign policy perspective.
“We’ve been too little, too late with all the weapons we’ve given to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky,” O’Brien said during a CNN-Politico event on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention. “Every time the Ukrainians were on the verge of winning and getting their territory back — we prevented them from getting Polish MiGs; I was talking about the Polish foreign minister. They were prepared early in the war to give them MiGs. We said no. F-16s, they came too little, too late.”
“I applaud the Biden folks for giving Ukraine aid, but it’s always been a half-step too late,” he added.
O’Brien argued that Russia did not invade Ukraine under the Trump administration because the United states intentionally left what its response would be ambiguous so that Russian leader Vladimir Putin could not predict how the U.S. would respond.
NATO made several short and long-term commitments to Ukraine last week during the 75th summit, including declaring in its communique that Kyiv is on the “irreversible path” to ascension into the alliance.
Ukrainian leaders’ latest request that dominated the summit was not for a specific system or weapon but rather for the U.S. and other allies to allow the country to use their weapons to hit military targets deep within Russia.
The subject of these restrictions has become a significant issue in recent months as Russian forces began attacking the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv from just over the border in Russian territory. So, the U.S. loosened the restrictions in late May to allow Ukrainian forces to hit targets just over the border. But, Ukraine wants to hit military targets further in Russian territory, which is still forbidden for U.S.-provided weapons.
The military targets they’re looking to hit that are not within that range include weapons production facilities, military facilities, airplanes, rocket launchers, and places where Russian forces are firing from into Ukraine.
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President Joe Biden defended the policy last Thursday during his much-anticipated press conference following the conclusion of the summit.
O’Brien declined to say whether he supported Ukraine’s pleas for the restrictions to be lifted or Biden’s refusal to do so up to this point.