The United States wants to see Ukraine become an independent state and will support it as long as it takes. But not at the level of the first two years of a full-scale war.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the goal of US assistance to Ukraine is for it to build its own industrial and military industrial base and to be able to finance, manufacture and buy its own ammunition. He said this at a briefing on 4 January.
"We will continue to support Ukraine. It is the policy of the United States. As long as it takes. That does not mean that we are going to continue to support them at the same level of military funding that we did in 2022 and 2023. We don’t think that should be necessary because the goal is to ultimately transition Ukraine – to use the language that you repeated back – to stand on its own feet and to help Ukraine build its own industrial base and its own military industrial base so it can both finance and build and acquire munitions on its own. But we are not there yet, and that is why it is so critical that Congress pass the supplemental funding bill, because we are not yet at the point where Ukraine can defend itself just based on its own. And it’s why that it continues to be important for Congress to support Ukraine and continues to be important for our European allies and others throughout the world to support Ukraine," he said.
Miller said that the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine would be very tough without US support, and the United States believes that assistance should continue. At the same time, Washington believes that Russia will not achieve its ultimate goals in the war.
Miller believes that Ukraine has shown the ability to stand on its own feet, has built its economy and has built its military. It has also proved that the enemy cannot achieve its goals.
"I'm just saying that it will not - it will not be able to achieve its ultimate goal of subjugating Ukraine - all of Ukraine to Russia," he said.
Miller added that the United States looks not only at Ukraine's performance on the battlefield, but also at how it has been able to build its economy and reforms.
"More needs to be done on all of those fronts, of course - the way they've garnered the support of not only the United States but all of Europe, and the way they continue to fight very bravely against the Russian army," he said.