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President Joe Biden told reporters at a press conference at the closing of the G7 summit Sunday that Western allies were making a "long-term" commitment to Ukraine by providing it with American-made fighter jets, arguing that the decision to send F-16s to Kyiv would not escalate tensions with Russia at a pivotal moment in the war.
Biden said he reached his decision to allow U.S. allies to supply Ukraine with F-16s after he received an assurance from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the fighter jets would not be used to launch attacks on targets in Russia.
"I have a flat assurance from Zelensky that they will not, they will not use it to go on and move into Russian geographic territory," Biden said.
The annual summit, which was dominated by a discussion of the war, featured a dramatic appearance by Zelensky, who traveled to Japan to plead his case for more support from the U.S. and the other G7 nations.
Biden's decision on greenlighting the F-16s and training for Ukrainian pilots was in keeping with the administration's pattern throughout the war of first saying no to Kyiv's demands for new, more powerful weapons systems, only to relent months later.
The administration approved Ukraine's requests for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Patriot missile defense systems and Abrams tanks after months of debate and prodding from allies in Europe.
But the provision of fighter planes marks a turning point in the war. The decision is an acknowledgment by the West that Ukraine may need significant military support for years to come, either to continue fighting Russia or to deter Moscow from relaunching an attack if the two sides eventually reach a ceasefire of some kind.
Biden said as much Sunday, arguing that boosting Ukraine's air power would give the country "confidence" in its ability to defend itself if both sides make a peace agreement.
The final negotiations over the fighter jets unfolded in recent weeks and were spearheaded by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, a senior administration official said.
"There was an awful lot of effort that went into getting to that point," the official said.
Biden's reversal on the F-16s also represents the biggest test yet of Moscow's red lines–the actions Ukraine and its Western allies might take that could trigger an escalation by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. So far, however, Russia has not retaliated each time the West has stepped up its military aid to Ukraine.
The administration's approach to giving Ukraine incrementally more lethal weaponry has been praised by supporters who argue that Biden has made smart strategic calculations about how far the West can go in pushing back against Russia.
But some military analysts, former diplomats and others have consistently expressed frustration at Biden's cautiousness, arguing that the U.S. should have started providing long-range missile systems, tanks and fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as the war began.
The criticism has grown louder in recent months as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive that could alter the course of the war, which has turned into a grinding fight along the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. The coming counteroffensive is Ukraine's best chance this year to strike a decisive blow against Russia on the battlefield.
If Ukraine had received Western tanks and fighter jets early last year -- along with the training needed to operate them -- they could have been deployed this summer, said George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
"It's somewhat frustrating and unfortunate that it's taken [the U.S.] this long" to deliver additional military aid to Ukraine, Barros said.
Now that the U.S. has given allies permission to send F-16s to Ukraine, it's only a matter of time before America follows suit, said John Herbst, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006. But the Biden administration's hesitancy "has dragged out the war and given the Russians a better position on the ground in Ukraine," Herbst said.
Zelensky's dramatic last-minute trip to the G7 Summit drove home the urgency of the moment for Ukraine.
Zelensky arrived in Japan on Saturday, halfway through the summit, ending days of speculation about whether he would attend in person or make virtual remarks. Clad in his signature khaki clothes, Zelensky served as a powerful reminder that his country remains locked in a fierce fight for its survival while his counterparts deliberate Ukraine's fate from afar.
At one point Zelensky provided a real-time battlefield update, refuting a claim by Russia that Ukraine had lost control of the city of Bakhmut, the site of the longest-running battle of the war. He added that Bakhmut was destroyed after months of fighting.
"Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing," Zelensky said at the start of a meeting with Biden at the summit.
Biden used the meeting with Zelensky to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine that includes more ammunition, artillery and armored vehicles.
The new package totals $375 million and is the 38th drawdown of military spending for Ukraine since last August, the Department of Defense said in a statement Sunday.
The meeting with Biden was part of a packed day for Zelensky. He also pushed India and Brazil -- two non-aligned nations in the war whose leaders attended the summit as observers -- to join the international coalition backing Ukraine.
Zelensky's appearance in Hiroshima overshadowed the agenda for the G7 coalition, which consists of the United States, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, along with the European Union, which is a "non-enumerated member."
The leaders discussed a range of topics other than the war in Ukraine, among them how to counter China's economic coercion and the threats posed by climate change.
In a joint communique, the G7 leaders reiterated their commitment to achieving the ambitious emissions reductions goals laid out in the Paris climate accord. Under Biden the United States rejoined the Paris agreement, reversing former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord.
The summit leaders struck a balanced tone on China, vowing to push back aggressively against the country's coercive trade practices while also insisting the new posture wasn't meant to harm relations with Beijing. China is the world's second largest economy but is not included in the G7 club of wealthy democracies.
"Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China's economic progress and development," the leaders said in the joint statement. "A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest."
China was also a topic of conversation at the Quad Leaders' Meeting that was held between Biden and the leaders of Japan, Australia and India. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Australia immediately following the G7 in Japan, but Biden canceled his planned trip to Sydney in order to return earlier to Washington to continue negotiations with Congress over raising the debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling talks happening half a world away in the U.S. hung over the summit in Japan.
As Biden met with his counterparts at a series of closed-door meetings in Hiroshima, top White House aides continued negotiations with Republicans in Congress to strike a deal on lifting the nation's borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the U.S. will default as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn't act.
During the summit Biden received constant updates on the negotiations between White House and congressional staff. House Republicans have called for deep spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The White House in recent days seemed to signal that it was open to some sort of compromise, after Biden and senior administration officials insisted for months that Congress raise the debt ceiling without preconditions.
Halfway through the summit, top Republicans in Washington and senior White House aides traveling with the president in Japan began to sound optimistic that a deal was in sight. But by Sunday the talks appeared to hit a snag, raising concern that the two sides may not reach an agreement ahead of the June 1 deadline.
Biden on Sunday reiterated his calls for Republicans to compromise. The president said he was open to spending cuts in negotiations over the budget if they were coupled with increases in tax revenue.
"We are willing to cut spending as well as raise revenue," Biden said at the press conference.
The president also said he was looking into whether he could invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt limit without congressional approval. Biden said he believed he had the authority to do so, but said he did not think the untested legal move could be done in time to avoid a default.
If the U.S. defaulted it would cause a massive shock to global financial markets. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that other leaders at the G7 told him Biden they were eagerly following the debt ceiling drama in Washington.
Still, the attention at the summit was focused squarely on Ukraine's struggle against Russia. In his one-on-one meeting with Zelensky, Biden vowed that Ukraine could continue counting on its allies for support.
"Together with the entire G7, we have Ukraine's back," Biden said, "and I promise we're not going anywhere."
About the writer
Daniel Bush is a Newsweek White House correspondent based in Washington, D.C. His focus is reporting on national politics and ... Read more