Just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian military began running out of ammunition for its aging Soviet-era artillery.
The United States immediately began scouring foreign arsenals around the world for the appropriate types of shells, as part of its commitment to support Kiev against a far better-equipped enemy. But the Pentagon knew it wouldn't be able to procure enough Russian heavy artillery ammunition because fewer countries were producing it and much of the Cold War-era stockpiled heavy artillery ammunition had aged and become unusable.
So on a Saturday that spring, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. He asked them to find out if they could be transported to Ukraine immediately. I made a grenade.
That call began a chain of events that led to the arms pipeline to Ukraine and a reimagining of how the United States would build alliances as it pushes back against Russian influence.
Biden administration officials first turned to U.S. allies for help. But they are also leveraging long-standing relationships with militaries in non-NATO countries to build a network of support for Ukraine, which suggests that the administration's focus on strengthening the alliance is in U.S. national interests around the world. The administration believes that this is a shining example of how the country has delivered dividends.
On Thursday, an international group known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the 25th and final time under the Biden administration.
It is unclear whether this will continue under the leadership of the next administration. President-elect Donald J. Trump has been highly skeptical of support for Ukraine, has put little emphasis on alliances, and has openly shown favoritism to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
When the contact group first met on April 26, 2022, just 61 days after the Russian invasion, the United States, Britain, France, and a handful of other countries were individually supporting Kiev. But dozens more joined them in Germany to hear first-hand battlefield updates from the Ukrainian side.
A massacre of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev, has recently come to light. Mr. Austin and General Milley made it clear that similar atrocities were likely to occur if Ukraine did not have more arms and ammunition, and urged the assembled officials to dig deep into their arsenals to secure desperately needed supplies. I asked him to dig deeper.
The conference was held in Ramstein, chosen for its central location in Europe, long runway for delegates arriving by plane, and the ability to maintain tight security while holding sensitive discussions about Ukraine's future. , was quickly put together with just four days' notice.
In a nondescript ballroom in the base's officers' club, Mr. Austin and Gen. Milley sat at the head of a horseshoe-shaped folding table with representatives from 40 countries, flanked by their Ukrainian and German counterparts.
Participation has since expanded to at least 52 countries, and the Pentagon has hinted that others are keeping their participation secret.
Since then, they have met almost every month.
The global battle for arms and influence
Shortly after Mr. Austin landed in Ramstein on a C-17 cargo plane Wednesday morning, snow began to fall on the giant Air Force transport plane along the runway. He prepared for the next day's meeting at a nearby hotel on base.
This will be the last contact group meeting of his tenure as Secretary of Defense.
That night, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and two of his aides walked through the hotel's second-floor hall in military uniforms to participate in a private meeting with Austin.
The Ukrainians traveled lightly, without large security forces remaining nearby like the Americans.
In some ways, Umerov's unit still straddles the two military cultures that defined the Cold War era: that of the United States and NATO, and that of the former Soviet Union.
Over the decades, both countries have built their own ecosystems of weapons that are compatible with the weapons of their allies but incompatible with those of their enemies. The difference between the 152-millimeter shells fired by Russian-made artillery and the 155-millimeter shells employed by NATO may seem small, but they are a testament to how militaries around the world have long been able to distinguish between the two camps. It symbolizes how it has been divided into two.
Determining whether a country is affiliated with the West or with Moscow was often as simple as identifying the weapons it used.
But the number of countries producing Russian-designed weapons has dwindled, especially since many of the former Soviet states that once produced them have since joined NATO.
The global supply of these weapons is further reduced as Russia suspends many of its arms exports to maintain sufficient ammunition supplies to meet its own needs in Ukraine.
This change means that many of Russia's traditional customers are starting to produce weapons, just as more countries around the world are starting to produce NATO standard weapons, even if they are not full members of the alliance. I decided to look elsewhere.
A new type of alliance is born
Ukraine, a former Soviet member state, has moved to NATO fighter jets like the F-16 and weapons like the HIMARS mobile rocket launcher, pulling even more countries out of Russia's orbit.
This change is also evident in the composition of the Contact Group itself, which includes 20 countries that were once in Moscow's Cold War sphere of influence, some of which purchased Russian arms up until the invasion of Ukraine. I continued to do so.
The composition of this contact group represents a new approach to US power projection. U.S. officials have said it could be used by future administrations in the event of a major conflict, such as a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan.
NATO has always been an alliance of countries pledging to come to each other's aid if attacked, but since the mid-1990s its influence has grown through partnerships with dozens of other countries that are full members.32 It has expanded far beyond the borders of the country. The United States leveraged its network to establish a contact group.
In addition to NATO members, many of the countries participating in the contact group are what the State Department calls “major non-NATO allies.” These include Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, New Zealand, Qatar, South Korea and Tunisia.
After decades of arms sales, these countries collectively had extensive inventories of NATO standard weapons to share with Ukraine.
Other members of NATO include Bosnia, Georgia, Ireland, Kosovo, Moldova, and Ecuador and Peru, former Russian military customers that have partnered with the alliance.
Lessons learned from the fight against ISIS
Austin modeled it after the Coalition to Defeat Islamic State contact group, which was formed in September 2014 and now includes more than 80 countries.
At the time, Austin was an Army general in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East. Eight years later, at Ramstein, he wore the uniform and shook hands with many of the same leaders who had supported him.
Together, member states of the Ukraine Support Group provided more than $126 billion in military aid, funds and hardware to Kyiv, according to the Pentagon.
While the Secretary of Defense works to expand and organize the new coalition, the State Department is trying to get more of Russia's former military vassals to donate Soviet-era weapons to Kiev in exchange for financial aid and quick access to modern weapons. I worked behind the scenes. American weapons.
Two and a half years into the war, the Pentagon still updates a file called the Matrix every week. This is a spreadsheet that lists countries known to have Russian weapons and their likely inventories.
It also includes a list of what the United States is prepared to request on Ukraine's behalf and incentives the U.S. government could provide in exchange for an influx of funds approved by Congress.
It is unclear whether these efforts will continue under the next administration, but it is clear that military and civilian officials are considering the possibility that Ukraine will have to continue fighting without its single biggest benefactor.
Pentagon officials have said that if the Trump administration decides to withdraw from the Ukraine Defense Liaison Group, another country will take over the U.S. leadership role in the global effort to supply arms to Ukraine without U.S. influence. He said there is a possibility that it will continue.
