James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:06 P.M. EDT
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon, good afternoon.
Okay, I just have one thing at the top, and then I'll turn it over to our guest.
So I want to acknowledge that today marks 100 days since Evan Gershkovich was wrongfully detained by Russian authorities. The world knows that the charges against Evan are baseless. He was arrested in Russia during the course of simply doing his job as a journalist. And he is being held by Russia for leverage because he is an American.
The President has been very clear that we have no higher priority than securing the release of Evan, Paul Whelan, and all Americans wrongfully detained abroad.
The team continues to work on these cases every day from all angles.
Our message to Evan and to Paul is this: Keep the faith. We won't stop until you are home.
Now, with that — now, with that, we have, as you know, the National Security Advisor to the President, Jake Sullivan, who is going to give a preview of his trip to the NATO Summit, as you all know, starting on Sunday, and take any other questions that you may have.
Jake, the podium is yours.
MR. SULLIVAN: Thank you, Karine. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for bearing with me today.
I'm going to start by laying out the plan for the trip that's upcoming this weekend. And then, because there have been numerous reports on the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine, I'll say a few words on that at the top and then be happy to take your questions.
President Biden said on day one of his administration that the United States would revitalize our alliances and re-engage with the world to meet the great challenges of our time. And on Sunday, the President will depart for his next major trip overseas, at a time when we have indeed regained our global standing as a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.
This trip will reflect that progress, and it will showcase the President's leadership on the world stage.
First, the President will travel to the United Kingdom. While in London, he will meet with King Charles at Windsor Castle and engage with a forum that will focu- — focus on mobilizing climate finance, especially bringing private finance off the sidelines, for clean energy deployment and adaptation in developing countries. He will also meet with Prime Minister Sunak to consult on a range of bilateral and global issues.
Next, the President will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania, to attend the NATO Summit. This will take place against the backdrop of Russial's [sic] — Russia's continuing brutal war against Ukraine. He will hold a bilateral meeting with Lithuanian President Nausėda. He will then meet with all of the NATO leaders at the summit, as well as a number of NATO partners from Europe and from the Indo-Pacific. They will discuss a range of subjects, from strengthening NATO's eastern flank to modernizing NATO's deterrence and defense capabilities.
Thanks in large part to President Biden's leadership, NATO is stronger, more energized, and more united than ever. NATO is also larger than ever, with Finland having joined the Alliance and Sweden soon to follow. This is important for the security and safety of the American people because a strong NATO makes the United States and the entire world more safe and more secure.
At the summit, the President and our Allies will demonstrate our unity and resolve in support of Ukraine.
When President Putin launched this war, he expected that Western unity would fracture, that NATO would break, that our support to Ukraine would wither over time.
He was wrong. The United States has built a coalition of dozens of countries — from Europe, to the Middle East, to the Indo-Pacific — to help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression. And we have mobilized the security assistance Ukraine needs, including by facilitating contributions from partners and allies around the world so that Ukraine is in the best possible position to succeed on the battlefield.
We continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty, their freedom, and their democracy.
After the summit, President Biden will give a significant address in Vilnius that evening — Wednesday evening — about his vision of a strong, confident America flanked by strong, confident allies and partners taking on the significant challenges of our time, from Russia's aggression in Ukraine to the climate crisis.
Finally, the President will travel to Helsinki, Finland, where he will meet with the President of Finland, Niinistö, and participate in a U.S.-Nordic Leaders' Summit. In these meetings, the President will advance our close cooperation with the Nordic countries on shared regional security objectives, along with shared efforts on technology, health, climate, and clean energy.
So we're looking forward to a busy week in Europe. And we're looking forward to the President being able to further solidify, strengthen, and give momentum to the strong, united alliance that has been standing up so effectively against Russian aggression.
As I mentioned, because we've seen all of these reports on the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine, I will leave it to the Pentagon to make a formal announcement later this afternoon for the next drawdown package and to go into the details of that drawdown package and the specifics on the types of munitions being provided. But I will use this opportunity here today to make a few points.
First, we base our security assistance decision on Ukraine's needs on the ground, and Ukraine needs artillery to sustain its offensive and defensive operations.
Artillery is at the core of this conflict. Ukraine is firing thousands of rounds a day to defend against Russian efforts to advance and also to support its own efforts to retake its sovereign territory.
We have provided Ukraine with a historic amount of unitary artillery rounds, and we are ramping up domestic production of these rounds. We've already seen substantial increases in production, but this process will continue to take time, and it will be critical to provide Ukraine with a bridge of supplies while our domestic production is ramped up. We will not leave Ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict, period.
Second, Russia has been using cluster munitions since the start of this war to attack Ukraine. Russia has been using cluster munitions with high dud or failure rates of between 30 and 40 percent. In this environment, Ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions in order to defend its own sovereign territory. The cluster munitions that we would provide have dud rates far below what Russia is doing — is providing — not higher than 2.5 percent.
And third, we are closely coordinating with Ukraine, as it has requested these munitions. Ukraine is committed to post-conflict de-mining efforts to mitigate any potential harm to civilians. And this will be necessary regardless of whether the United States provides these munitions or not because of Russia's widespread use of cluster munitions. We will have to continue to assist Ukraine with de-mining efforts no matter what, given the significant use of cluster munitions already perpetrated by Russia.
So the bottom line is this: We recognize that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance. This is why we've deferred — deferred the decision for as long as we could. But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery. That is intolerable to us.
Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land. This is their country they're defending. These are their citizens they're protecting. And they are motivated to use any weapons system they have in a way that minimizes risks to those citizens.
So with that, I would be happy to take your questions.
Annie.
Q Jake, thank you so much. Annie Linskey with the Wall Street Journal. I was hoping you could comment on the news earlier this week that the Russians may be open to a prisoner swap for Evan Gershkovich.
And I also had a question for you about how the uprising by the Wagner Group may, in your view, impact Russia's leaders' willingness or lack of willingness to make a deal that would release Evan.
MR. SULLIVAN: So first is, as Karine mentioned before, today is the 100th day of Evan's unjust and unlawful detention. And for those 100 days, President Biden, the entire national security team, our embassy in Moscow, our Secretary of State, myself personably — personally have been invested in trying to bring him home safely.
Second, I had the opportunity this morning to meet with Evan's employers at the Wall Street Journal and the personal representatives of his family to talk about the latest status in his case and our efforts to bring Evan home.
Third, we did see the comments from the Kremlin that there have been contacts between the U.S. and Russia regarding Evan and other unjustly detained Americans. It is true, and we have said, that we remain in contact with Russian authorities at high levels on these cases to try to figure out a way to bring unjustly detained Americans home, including Evan. We have also made clear for months now — even before Evan was detained, as we were dealing with Paul Whelan — that we are prepared to do hard things in order to get our citizens home, including getting Evan home.
I do not want to give false hope. What the Kremlin said earlier this week is correct: There have been discussions. But those discussions have not produced a clear pathway to a resolution, and so I cannot stand here today and tell you that we have a clear answer to how we are going to get Evan home.
All I can do is tell you that we have a clear commitment and conviction that we will do everything possible to bring him home.
With respect to the question of whether the recent actions by Prigozhin and the fallout from that creates new openings or opportunities: I can't say that I have perceived that directly, but, of course, this is a story that continues to be written day by day. So we will have to see how things continue to play out in Moscow.
In the meantime, we're going to stay laser-focused on doing everything we can, both directly with the Russians and then with other allies and partners around the world who are invested in his safe return, to try to get them out as soon as possible.
Q Thank you.
MR. SULLIVAN: Yeah.
Q President Zelenskyy said the invitation for Ukraine to join NATO would be the ideal outcome from the summit. Why does the administration believe that's not the right approach for the summit?
MR. SULLIVAN: Well, as you know, the United States strongly supports the open-door policy, which says that Ukraine and NATO can make a decision together about its pathway towards membership. And Vilnius will be an important moment on that pathway towards membership because the United States, our NATO Allies, and Ukraine will have the opportunity to discuss the reforms that are still necessary for NATO to — for Ukraine to come up to NATO standards.
So this will, in fact, be a milestone, but Ukraine still has further steps it needs to take before membership in NATO.
Q So no invitation coming at the — at the summit?
MR. SULLIVAN: Ukraine will not be joining mem- — NATO coming out of this summit. We will discuss what steps are necessary as it continues along its pathway.
Q And one — this thing on cluster munitions. What convinced President Biden this was the right time to do cluster munitions, given the concern? Did Allies express concerns to him? And are you suggesting that the reason you're providing cluster munitions is because Ukraine is running out of unitary artillery rounds? Is that — is that to backfill that?
MR. SULLIVAN: So, first, we have been looking at this for quite some time. And what we have been weighing is this basic question of civilian harm.
The challenge of cluster munitions, as you know, is that even at low dud rates there is some unexploded ordnance that is left, and that could potentially pose a risk to civilians down the road.
So we did not immediately come out of the gate and provide this. But we had to balance that against the risk to civilian harm if Ukraine did not have sufficient artillery ammunition.
We are reaching a point in this conflict, because of the dramatically high expenditure rates of artiller- — of artillery by Ukraine and by Russia, where we need to build a bridge from where we are today to when we have enough monthly production of unitary rounds that unitary rounds alone will suffice to give Ukraine what it needs.
So, as a result, this is the moment to begin the construction of that bridge so that there isn't any period over this summer or heading into this fall when Ukraine is short on artillery and, being short on artillery, it is vulnerable to Russian counterattacks that could subjugate more Ukrainian civilians.
That is the thinking behind our decision. We consulted closely with allies in deciding to do this. And some allies who are not signatories to the Oslo Convention embraced it with open arms, said this is absolutely the right thing to do. Even allies who were signatories to the Oslo Convention, while they cannot formally support something that they've signed up to a convention against, have indicated both privately and, many of them, publicly over the course of today that they understand our decision and, fundamentally, that they recognize the difference between Russia using its cluster munitions to attack Ukraine and Ukraine using cluster munitions to defend itself, its citizens, and its sovereign territory.
So we feel that this will in no way disrupt the very strong, firm unity that we have heading into the NATO Summit in Vilnius next week.
Yeah.
