Ramstein Air Base, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Donald Trump’s return to the White House would open a “new chapter” and repeated a call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia to peace.” He made the plea as the Biden administration announced what is likely to be its last major military aid package for Ukraine – a pledge of $500 million worth of arms and other aid.

Zelenskyy was speaking at a meeting of about 50 allies at the US military’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the last such gathering before Trump takes office on January 20. His imminent return to the White House cast doubt on future American support Ukrainian war effortwith regard to the previous one favorable remarks about Russia’s authoritarian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s pledge to quickly end the war nearly three years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Although he has offered no clear indication of how he intends to achieve this, many in Ukraine and across Europe are concerned that Trump could fulfill his promise by withholding aid to Ukraine and pushing Zelenski to negotiate a truce which allows Russia to maintain control over part of the occupied vast territory in eastern Ukraine, the Donbas region.

“It is clear that a new chapter is starting for Europe and the whole world – just 11 days from now, a time when we must cooperate even more, rely on each other even more and achieve even greater results together,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he saw “as a time of opportunity”.

As the torturous war nears its three-year mark, which it will reach on February 24, Zelenskyy repeated his call for Western allies to send troops to Ukraine’s aid.

“Our goal is to find as many instruments as possible to force Russia to make peace,” he said at the meeting. “I believe that such arrangement of partner contingents is one of the best instruments.”

The United States under President Joe Biden has been the largest supporter of Ukraine during the war, providing more than $65 billion in military aid as of February 2022. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — who initiated the Ramstein format shortly after the war began — announced a new military aid package on Thursday.

The aid, which includes a wide range of missiles and other weapons and equipment, as well as provisions for services, training and transportation, will be the 74th such package provided from existing US military inventories to Ukraine since Mr. Biden took office, the State Department said in a statement.

“The United States and more than 50 nations are united to ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Ukraine’s war against invading Russian forces “is important to all of us,” Austin said as he opened the 25th meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group. “We all have an interest in ensuring that autocrats cannot put their imperial ambitions ahead of the fundamental rights of free and sovereign peoples.”

High representative of the European Union for foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, said that she hopes that the US will continue to support Ukraine. If not, she added, the EU is ready to take the lead.

“I’m really sure that all the other members, and hopefully the United States, are ready to continue supporting Ukraine,” Kallas said as she headed to a meeting in Ramstein.

At this stage, she told reporters, “we shouldn’t really be speculating” about future US support. But she said that “it is not in America’s interest for Russia to be the strongest power in the world.”

But she added that “the European Union is also ready to take this lead if the United States does not want to do it.”

Russian and Ukrainian forces are now participated in fierce battleslooking to secure their battleground positions before Trump’s inauguration.

Trump has long criticized NATO allies for spending too little on the bloc’s common defense. This week it caused further alarm refusing to rule out military action to seize Greenlandthe autonomous territory of Denmark, a member of the EU and NATO, under the control of the USA, together with the Panama Canal.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the allies must help Ukraine achieve a position of strength before a possible ceasefire or peace talks.

We need to put Ukraine in the best possible position so that one day, when talks on how to resolve this conflict would begin on Ukraine’s initiative, they would be in the best possible position to do so, he said. “And then when these negotiations are over, they will see, in a way, whether it is a good deal or not. And if it is not good, the Chinese, North Koreans, Iran, obviously, Russia will see it.”

“The whole world is watching,” emphasized Rutte.