Ukraine must find a diplomatic solution: US officials

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High-ranking White House officials argued that the conflict in Ukraine must have a diplomatic solution, following increasing concerns about Ukraine's deteriorating situation on the battlefield.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, in a speech at the Center for New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, DC-based lobby group close to the Democratic Party, that the US will continue to help Ukraine “to the maximum extent possible.” Sullivan, also stated that the help his government offered has not only been on the ground but also “ultimately at the negotiating table” adding that the US believed that “this has to end with diplomacy.”

CNAS is a center that is funded by the likes of military-industrial complex giants Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, meaning all military investment in Ukrainian is profitable for these companies and is equally profitable for the center.

Read more: Putin warns of escalating targets over missiles supply to Kiev

The center also received at least $500,000 from the US Department of Defense. Colin Kahl announced, earlier this week from CNAS that the US decided to send Ukraine guided missiles for the HIMARS rocket launchers. The US has sent more than $5 billion in military supplies to Ukraine since Biden took office in 2021, according to a senior administration official.

The Pentagon also decided Tuesday to provide $1 billion worth of Harpoon missile launchers, howitzers, and ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine due to the nature of the conflict changing to an "artillery duel", Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told a press briefing on Wednesday. 

A senior administration official told reporters that the US would send M142 HIMARS, which have a range of approximately 77 km.

An NBC News report claimed earlier that some US and European officials were “increasingly concerned that the trajectory of the war in Ukraine is untenable” and were “quietly discussing” asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “temper his hard-line public position” that no territory will ever be ceded to Russia.

To that report, Sullivan said at CNAS that  “we are not going to be pressing them to make territorial concessions. We think that’s frankly wrong.”

Furthermore and according to the report, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, insisted that Biden’s view on the matter has not changed. He reiterated that “President Zelensky is the democratically elected leader of that country, and he gets to determine how this war ends,” and added that “He gets to determine how he defines victory and how he gets at that outcome.”

Contrary to that, NBC News cited seven current and former US and European officials who would argue otherwise. One US official said that his government is not actively pressuring Kiev to make concessions in the same way some Europeans are but rather the US was “planning for a long war.”

Read more: Biden blames Zelensky for deterioration of Ukrainian crisis

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Biden was “not happy” when Austin stated that “They believe that we can win; we believe that they – we can win – they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” adding that the US wanted to “see Russia weakened.”

While the two officials remarked that Biden was not happy with their comments, there is no indication that he in fact did tell them to “tone it down.”

In parallel, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov said on Thursday, while speaking to CNN, that Kiev will “liberate all our territories, all of it, including Crimea,” with the support of NATO-supplied weapons. Ukrainian Major-General Dmitry Marchenko said on Wednesday that one of the goals for Ukraine is to target the Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland.

Previously in May, the US president first demanded $33 billion in aid, before Congress later upped the amount to about $40 billion, according to US media reports. Additional funding was recommended in particular for the procurement of fighting vehicles and food supplies.