Defense & National Security — Allies ratchet up military aid to Ukraine

Allies are upping their military support to Ukraine amid the latest images of Russia’s war atrocities in Bucha, though some of Kyiv’s demands have been met with resistance from the West.  

We’ll break down the latest in their support, plus recap Pentagon officials’ testimony to Congress on the agency’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023.  

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Jordan Williams. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Allies ramp up military support after atrocities 

Allies are upping military support to Ukraine amid the latest, devastating images of war atrocities coming from Bucha, sending more drones, missiles and, for the first time, tanks.   

With Russia’s attack on Ukraine in its sixth week, however, there remains a significant chasm between what Kyiv says it needs to win the war and what the West says it can provide. 

The atrocities in Bucha: Photos of civilians apparently killed execution-style by Russian troops in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha have drawn fresh outrage over the Kremlin’s attack on Ukraine.  

Images of the fallen suggested Russian troops had indiscriminately tortured, shot and killed individuals during their occupation of the town, and satellite images indicated that bodies had been left in the streets for weeks, contradicting Moscow’s claims that the photos were staged. 

The United States and other countries quickly moved to punish Russia, with the Biden administration on Wednesday announcing a wave of new sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest banks, Putin’s two adult daughters and family members of Russia’s top diplomat, as well as blacklisting members of Russia’s Security Council.   

Send in the weapons: Earlier this week, news broke that the Czech Republic has been quietly sending old Soviet-designed tanks into Ukraine — the first time another country had provided the vehicles to Kyiv since the Kremlin began its invasion on Feb. 24.  

And the Biden administration on Tuesday said it would send up to $100 million worth of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, its fourth such lethal aid package to the country since the war began, after confirming that it sent more than 100 Switchblade drones. 

Pushing the limits: Kyiv wants Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets and S-300 long-range air defense systems currently scattered around the continent, weapons they are already familiar with and are trained to use.  

Those asks, however, have been met with resistance. The U.S. has outright rejected Poland’s plans from March to transfer its entire fleet of MiG-29s to a U.S. base in Germany to then be sent to Ukraine, calling the idea not “tenable.”  

And the U.S. has sought to have Slovakia provide its S-300 systems to Ukraine, but the NATO ally wants a guarantee it will quickly get a “proper replacement” for the system. There has yet to be a public agreement between the two countries.    

Read more here. 

UKRAINE FOREIGN MINISTER DEMANDS ‘WEAPONS, WEAPONS, WEAPONS’

Ukraine’s foreign minister is calling on NATO to provide “weapons, weapons, weapons” to aid in its defense as Russia’s invasion enters its sixth week. 

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba voiced the plea on Twitter after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, writing that the “three most important things” to Kyiv are “weapons, weapons, weapons.” 

“Met with Secretary General @jensstoltenberg at NATO HQ in Brussels. I came here today to discuss three most important things: weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. 

“Ukraine’s urgent needs, the sustainability of supplies, and long-term solutions which will help Ukraine to prevail,” he added. 

Read more here. 

🎧 TUNE-IN TO RISING, now available as a podcast. It’s politics — without the screaming.

Pentagon officials testify on budget proposal

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday about the Pentagon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023. 

The Pentagon officials fielded questions from senators about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the forthcoming national defense strategy and how inflation will impact the increases asked for by the Pentagon. 

Recap of the proposal: The Department of Defense is asking for a $773 billion budget for fiscal year 2023, a $30.7 billion (4.1 percent) increase over what was enacted for fiscal year 2022.  

The Pentagon’s budget takes up the vast majority of the Biden administration’s overall $813.3 billion national defense budget proposal, which is also a 4 percent increase over what was enacted in fiscal year 2022.  

The budget prioritizes China as the Pentagon’s “pacing challenge” and requests a historic $130.1 billion for research and development. It also allocates $56.5 billion for air power platforms, $40.8 billion for sea power, and $12.6 billion to modernize Army and Marine Corps fighting vehicles.  

The proposal also calls for a 4.6 percent pay raise for military and civilian personnel.  

On Russia and Ukraine: While the budget proposal prioritizes China as the Pentagon’s so-called pacing challenge, Austin and Milley fielded a lot of questions about Russia and Ukraine, which is the most pressing issue for the U.S. and Europe.  

The Biden administration has allocated $2.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration, including an additional $100 million in assistance announced on Tuesday.  

In response to a question from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Austin told the panel that the U.S. will continue to focus on giving the Ukrainian people “everything they need” as fast as possible.  

A MISSING NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY

Republicans confronted the Pentagon officials on not publicly releasing an unclassified version of the Biden administration’s national defense strategy.  

The Pentagon has said that the budget proposal reflects the strategy, a classified version of which was sent to Congress last week.  

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) pointed out that last year, testimony on the budget was delayed until Congress had the chance to review the strategy.  

“I think having this hearing without any detailed information about the budget and when we are unable to openly discuss any of the administration’s strategy documents directly undermines the committee’s ability to conduct its oversight work,” Fischer said.  

“And it is contrary to the spirit of transparent government that these public hearings are intended to support,” she continued.  

The elephant of inflation: Democrats and Republicans alike raised concerns about how inflation would impact the Pentagon’s budget, with the GOP arguing that the proposed budget does not properly account for inflation.  

The White House predicts that inflation will rise to 4.7 percent in 2022, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), and then drop to 2.3 percent in 2023 and years later.  

But McCord told lawmakers that the Pentagon uses the gross domestic product implicit price deflator (GDP deflator), which measures changes in prices of goods and services produced in the U.S., for its measure of inflation.  

The proposed budget builds in 4 percent price increases during fiscal year 2023. But the proposal had been finished last year, before Russia invaded Ukraine, an event which rattled U.S. markets.  

“What happened last year is not what we see happening today, and it may not be what’s happening tomorrow,” McCord said. “But with all the information we had when we finished, we caught up so that we would not fall behind on our pricing.”  

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US, India gear up for 2+2 dialogue

The State Department announced Thursday that it will hold a strategic dialogue with top officials from India in Washington, D.C., next week. 

The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will welcome India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar and Indian Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh to Washington for the fourth U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on April 11.  

It added that this event will also commemorate 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and “reaffirm the importance of the U.S.-India Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership in ensuring international peace and security.” 

Strengthening bilateral ties: The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that the dialogue would enable both countries to “undertake a comprehensive review of cross-cutting issues in the India-U.S. bilateral agenda related to foreign policy, defence and security with the objective of providing strategic guidance and vision for further consolidating the relationship.” 

It added that it will provide an opportunity to exchange views about important regional and global developments and how both countries can work together to “address issues of common interest and concern.” 

Pressuring India on Russia: This meeting comes as India is coming under pressure from the U.S. and Western countries to take a tougher position with Russia, a country with which it has long had strong ties. 

President Biden’s economic adviser, Brian Deese, issued a strongly worded statement aimed at India on Wednesday and said the U.S. has told India the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be “significant and long-term,” Bloomberg reported. 

Last month, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh traveled to meet with officials from India’s government in New Delhi, and criticized the South Asian country’s imports of Russian oil and its reliance on military hardware from Moscow. 

Read the full story here. 

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host a discussion on
• Strategic Japan 2022: Competition in New Domains at 8:30 a.m. 
• Foreign Policy will hold a forum on “India’s Response to Putin’s War” at 9 a.m. 

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That’s it for today! Check out The Hill’s Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you tomorrow!