Ukraine tells Trump to emulate Reagan as Putin readies major spring offensive

KYIV — U.S. Republicans and their candidate for the White House, Donald Trump, must remember they’re the party of Ronald Reagan and support Ukraine as Russian forces build up for a major offensive from May or June.

That was the message from Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff, in an interview with POLITICO in Kyiv on Thursday evening.

Asked whether he feared Trump being reelected, or that President Joe Biden’s $60 billion aid package for Ukraine won't eventually be passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where it has been stalled for months by Trump loyalists, Yermak said he couldn't believe Republicans would forget Reagan's 1981-1989 presidency and his Cold War crusade against Moscow's ‘evil empire.’

“I don't believe anybody who represents the party of Ronald Reagan will abandon Ukraine. Reagan understood the Soviet Union and Russia, and anyone who does will continue to support our fighters because they understand that dictators never stop voluntarily and have to be stopped,” he said.

Yermak, who minutes earlier had just got off the phone with Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, remained positive the aid will eventually be approved.

He wasn't sure when that would happen, but insisted it had to be soon. “In the meantime it is costing us lives and I very much hope that it is passed this month because Ukraine is approaching a critical moment,” he said.

Biden aides have been working behind the scenes to ensure House Speaker Mike Johnson does put the multi-billion-dollar aid package for Ukraine up for a vote as early as next week. Biden has publicly pressured House Republicans to pass the package but avoided attacking the speaker, opting to give him the space to persuade his fractious GOP caucus.

Zelenskyy and his top officials have also been quietly lobbying the Republicans. The Ukrainian president revealed last week he had a phone conversation with Johnson, in which he outlined how crucial the aid package is for Ukraine and detailed the surge in missile and drone strikes and the devastation they are causing, especially to the country’s energy infrastructure.

The pummeling Ukraine has come under in the past three weeks is part of a campaign to soften it up for a major Russian offensive, Yermak said.

He saw the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, as the most likely target for the main thrust of an assault. Kharkiv has come in for an especially ferocious battering and and large-scale Russian attacks have wrecked its power plants.

“We know that Putin is preparing a new wave of mobilization and we reckon new counter-offensive operations  by the Russians could start at the end of the May or the beginning of June. Of course, we have to be ready for this,” Yermak said. “We still critically need additional air-defense systems because without them it is impossible to for us to defend our cities,” he added.

Yermak said more Patriot surface-to-air missiles are also needed to defend the front lines, where the Russians are causing massive damage, and some fear tilting the military balance, with aerial guided bombs.

The 1.5-ton bombs are a conversion of an old Soviet-era weapon and are delivered by fighter jets some 70 kilometers from the target then directed by a guidance system, using pop-out wings to glide toward its target. They were were used in the recent Russian offensive in the Donetsk region and played havoc with defenses at Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine that fell to Russia last month.

“But once again, the problem for us is of the time,” says Yermak. “I'd like to emphasize that it's a critical moment now. It's very important the package is approved this month,” he added.

Asked about whether Ukraine will heed American pleas to avoid striking Russian oil facilities, Yermak avoided commenting directly. Zelenskyy last week said in an interview with the Washington Post that targeting Russian energy infrastructure is a legitimate military strategy.

Yermak expanded on that, saying that there has “to be payback for what the Russians are doing to us. We must ruin their critical infrastructure — as the only language they understand is force.”