US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the outgoing Biden administration is planning a “massive surge” of weapons to Ukraine in the seven weeks until the next administration takes office.

“President Biden directed me to oversee a massive surge in the military equipment that we are delivering to Ukraine so that we have spent every dollar that Congress has appropriated to us by the time that President Biden leaves office,” Sullivan said Sunday on ABC’s This Week interview program.

“We are going to do everything in our power for these 50 days to get Ukraine all the tools we possibly can to strengthen their position on the battlefield,” he added.

Since the November 5, 2024 presidential election, the Biden administration has enormously expanded the scale of direct US military intervention into the Ukraine war.

On November 9, the Biden administration authorized the deployment of US military contractors in Ukraine to service advanced weapons, such as tanks, fighter jets and long-range weapons.

A week later, on November 17, Biden authorized Ukraine to use US-made ATACMS long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia. Later that week, the UK did the same with its Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with both weapons systems being used to strike deep inside Russia within days of the announcement.

On November 19, Biden authorized the provision of anti-personnel land mines to Ukraine, a weapon that is banned by multiple international treaties for its propensity to kill civilians, especially children, long after conflicts are over.

On November 21, the New York Times reported that the Biden administration is discussing allowing Ukraine to deploy nuclear weapons. The Times wrote that “Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons again, as it did before the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.”

The report prompted a response from former Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, who warned, “American politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of transferring nuclear weapons to Kiev.”

Medvedev said that “the very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kiev regime can be considered as preparation for a nuclear conflict with Russia,” adding that “the actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an accomplished act of attack on our country.”

In his interview on ABC on Sunday, Sullivan was asked to respond directly to the Times report, which was quoted at length by moderator Jonathan Karl. Sullivan denied the Times’ claims, saying: “That is not under consideration. No. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not nuclear capability.”

It is worth noting that every escalatory action taken by the Biden administration against Russia, including sending Abrams battle tanks, F-16s and long-range weapons, was preceded by an equally categorical denial on the part of the Biden administration.

In 2023, the World Socialist Web Site asked rhetorically, “Are nuclear weapons the next red line NATO will cross in Ukraine?,” warning of “the deployment or even use of tactical nuclear weapons by NATO to prevent a Russian victory in the conflict.”

It is increasingly clear that the situation facing the Ukrainian armed forces is desperate, with Russian forces making advances on every front.

In its latest report on the war, the New York Times reported that “Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have seized at least 10 villages and settlements in roughly as many days.” It added, “The situation looks particularly precarious for Ukrainian forces in Donetsk, in Ukraine’s east, where Russian forces are closing in on their last two strongholds in the southern part of the region... The fall of the strongholds, Kurakhove and Velyka Novosilka, could pave the way for a Russian takeover of the area.”

It quoted Andrii Biletskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade, as saying, “This is indeed the most difficult situation in almost three years of war.”

The Financial Times, meanwhile, has pointed to a massive rise in desertions, noting, “More Ukrainian soldiers have deserted in the first 10 months of this year than in the previous two years of the war, highlighting Kyiv’s struggle to replenish its frontline ranks as Russia captures more territory in eastern Ukraine.”

It continued, “In a standout case in late October, hundreds of infantry serving in Ukraine’s 123 Brigade abandoned their positions in the eastern town of Vuhledar. They returned to their homes in the Mykolayiv region, where some staged a rare public protest.”

In response to mounting opposition to the war inside Ukraine, the Biden administration is demanding that the Ukrainian government lower the recruitment age from 25 to 18, sending untold numbers of Ukrainian youth to their deaths.

A senior US official told the Financial Times, “The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilizing or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia’s growing military.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that his government is planning to lower the recruitment age, declaring, “Let there be no speculation—our state is not preparing to lower the mobilization age.”

The Biden administration is doing everything in its power to create “facts on the ground” that guarantee the continued escalation of the war after it leaves office.

“On January 21, the war in Ukraine doesn’t just go away,” Sullivan told Karl in his interview on Sunday.

For its part, the Trump transition team has made a point of embracing the Biden administration’s escalation of the war. “For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other, they’re wrong,” said Mike Waltz, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, last week.

“We are hand in glove,” Waltz added. “We are one team with the United States in this transition.”