U.S. defense chief Austin vows continued aid to Ukraine in post-hospital remarks

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking from home after his latest hospitalization, opened a meeting of US allies with a never-surrender message aimed at reassuring Ukraine almost two years after Russia’s invasion.

“Ukraine will not surrender and neither will we,” Austin said after being released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday. He vowed that the US still stands “foursquare with Ukraine,” but made no mention of the fight in Congress that has stalled delivery of more US weapons. The most recent US military aid package was issued in late December.

Austin, 70, had planned to travel to Brussels for the latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group but scrapped the trip after being hospitalized for a bladder problem earlier this week. It was the latest complication from treatment in late December for prostate cancer, according to a Pentagon statement on Tuesday. It said his doctors had advised him to “recuperate and perform his duties remotely” for several days.

Reading from a prepared text, Austin struck a confident tone as he spoke of Ukraine’s need to set up a system to maintain expected F-16 fighters and the coalition’s capability to ensure Ukraine is provided with the weapons and command structure to maintain an integrated, layered air defense structure “to protect its civilians, cities and skies.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to act on a Senate-passed bill providing more aid to Ukraine until a Republican-only bill to address the migrant crisis at the southern US border is enacted.