Im going to be superquick. Im going to turn things over to National Security advisor Jake Sullivan who is here to talk about the National Security supplemental that the president signed this morning. And our support for ukraine, our continued support for ukraine. Jake . Adv. Sullivan thank you. Karine was very short. I have a few things to lay out. Im sorry we are late for the podium today but it is for good reason, which is i have just come from being with the president when he a chance to meet with the fouryearold american who was held hostage by hamas in gaza and was released last november as part of the first hostage deal the president was able to help broker and negotiate. It was also a reminder in getting to see her that there are still americans and others being held hostage by hamas and we are working day in and they out to ensure all of them also are able to get safely home to their loved ones. The main reason i have come to the podium today is to follow up on the president s remarks from earlier today and the very important consequential vote that was taken in the senate last night and the bill that was signed by the president this morning. This morning, you heard President Biden speak about the article importance of the National Security supplemental, which came to the president s desk as we said it would with overwhelming bipartisan support from the u. S. Congress. I have stood at this podium numerous times and said the road may be of twists and turns. I cannot predict when it will happen but i always had confidence it would happen. That is because of the deep reservoir of support there is for ukraine and that is true of democrats. It is true of republicans. It is true of independents. That is what has shown in the votes in the house and the 79 aye vote we saw in the senate last night. The passage has sent a powerful message to the rest of the world about the enduring strength of american leadership. The rest of the world has been and continues to watch closely. As you all know, getting this legislation through congress has been a top priority for President Biden since he first submitted his up a mental request more than six months ago. It gets to a core tenet of his foreignpolicy philosophy. When our friends and allies are stronger, we the United States and American People are stronger. When our friends are attacked or threatened, we the United States stand up for them. We do our part. We keep our word. With that senator this morning, the president kept americas word we would stand with ukraine through thick and thin and that is exactly what we will do. When russia began amassing troops on ukraines border, the president rallied the world to respond to russias aggression. He built a Broad Coalition that flowed critical aid to ukraine as the ukrainian people defend themselves and won the battle for kyiv and regained half the territory russia occupied since 2022. I the bill the president signed today and the significant and immediate military aid package he approved one minute later, it will send ukraine the supplies it needs to make sovereignty and territorial integrity. Bill will help punish israels air defenses which is more important following irans braids in unprecedented attack 10 days ago. It will help ensure israel has what it needs to defend itself against the real threats it faces from iran as well as irans proxy groups. The supplemental will substantially increase military and aid for Palestinian Civilians in gaza who are suffering grievously. As we work to build on the progress of the last two weeks in terms of an increase in the amount of lifesaving humanitarian assistance that has been and must continue to flow into gaza and the quantities and the type of human italian assistance we have seen increase over the last two weeks. We need to see continued and sustained increases as we go forward. The bill will also enhance and expand humanitarian aid for those who have been impacted by instability, by conflict, by disaster all over the world including in haiti and sudan and somalia. The bill makes important vests important investments in her defense and actual base that was strength in our own military and it provides timely support to allies and partners in the indo pacific as well. Getting this bill passed entails months of advocacy, handson work by President Biden himself, his white house team, his National Security team and countless briefings, meetings, hearings by departments and agencies across our government for the congress in the house and the senate. It was a long road to secure this funding and i have to say standing here today, it was too long. The consequences of the delay have been felt in ukraine. Over the past six month, ukraine has had to ration ammunition. That has resulted in the loss of some territory in the east. While todays announcement is good news for ukraine, there steer under severe pressure on the battlefield. It is possible russia could make additional tactical gains on of the coming weeks. Russia has tried to grind out very slow, costly progress on multiple fronts over the past few weeks. They are threatening settlements to the west and they are raining down on kharkiv and cities across ukraine. The fact as it is going to take some time for us to dig out of the hole that was created by sixmonth sub delay before Congress Passed the supplemental. That is why the minute the president signed the supplemental, he turned and signed a very substantial drawdown package that includes urgently needed artillery, more armored vehicles, javelins, stingers and air defense interceptors among other things. These capabilities are going to start weaving immediately to make up for lost time. At this critical moment, this is a way to show in deed as well as in word the United States stands with ukraine. And despite the challenges i have just described, i think it is very important for us to underscore as we look ahead to the rest of 2024, our view is ukraine retains key advantages in this fight. Ukraine can and will prevail. That will be thanks to the bravery of its people but also the support of its friends. First, the Ukrainian Military remains a resilient, brave and effective fighting force. Even as ukrainians waited for u. S. Security assistance, they were able to impose significant cost on russia. Since the start of 2024, we estimate ukraine has destroyed more than 700 Russian Armored vehicles and roughly 250 russian tanks. Russia meanwhile has had to continue to throw it soldiers into the fight without proper training and equipment. Second, our allies as the president said this morning have been mobilizing in support ukraine alongside us. Just yesterday, the u. K. Announced a significant new package of military aid for ukraine alongside major investment so they are making in their Defense Industrial base, putting their Defense Budget on a path to reach 2. 5 of their gdp by the end of the decade. The United States welcomes these moves from a stalwart ally. Germany recently announced the donation of another patriot system to ukraine. The czech government has raised enough to purchase half a million artillery shells for ukraine with hundreds of thousands more beyond that to follow. Estonia announced its own ambitious effort to secure even more artillery and other forms of ammunition for ukraine. Third, the United States is building up our capacity to support ukraine. For example, we are investing in our own Domestic Production of 55 millimeter artillery rounds. Since the part of this conflict, we have more than doubled our monthly production of 155. By the end of this year, we will have doubled it again. We are going to be able to provide from our own production steady and significant supplies of artillery to ukraine. We are also providing ukraine with new capabilities. I am able to confirm as you have heard from others in february the president directed his team to provide ukraine with a significant number of missiles for use inside ukraines sovereign territory. That shipment started moving in march as part of the pda the president authorized on march 12. Those missiles have arrived in ukraine. This followed russias use of north koreas Ballistic Missiles against ukraine as well as russias renewed and escalating attacks against civilian infrastructure in ukraine. Until recently, as we have said on many occasions, we were unable to provide these because of readiness concerns. Behind the scenes, the administration across the board has worked to address those concerns. We now have a significant number coming off the production line and entering u. S. Stocks. As a result, we can move forward with providing them while also sustaining the readiness of the u. S. Armed forces. The path ahead will not be easy. Russia is going to continue to press attacks against ukrainian defenses, but for the reasons i have laid out, over time, we assess the ukrainians position in this conflict will improve and we believe ukraine can and will win. As ive said from this podium before, no one in this room and no one anywhere else should underestimate the ukrainian people and no one should underestimate President Bidens resolve and the American Peoples resolve and the bipartisan majority in the house and the senates resolve to stand with ukraine. I would be happy to take your questions. Thank you, jake. How big of an impact will the missiles have on the battlefield in ukraine and will they be sent to ukraine as part of the 60 billion aid package . Adv. Sullivan as i said in my opening comments, we have sent some. We will send more. Im not going to get into specific numbers for operational reasons. As i have said before at this podium and as you have heard from secretary austin, the chairman and other senior military officials, there is no Silver Bullet should one capability is not going to be the ultimate solution. It is an amalgamation of communities of capabilities that come together and combined with the bravery and skill of ukraines fighters that will make the difference in this conflict. We think it is good we are able to provide them, that i dont expect to stand before you and say one capability has been the Silver Bullet. Are you worried it could provoke russia . They have said sending these longrange missiles could be crossing a redline. Adv. Sullivan what we have seen from the russians is their willingness to accept longrange missiles from other countries, specifically north korea. They have used those on the battlefield. They have used them to attack ukraine civilians as well. From our perspective, now we have resolved readiness concerns, and able to step up and provide our own capabilities to ukraine as partners of ours have, u. K. , the french and others, we think it is appropriate to do. We think it is a good capability at this phase on it a conflict for ukraine. We will stand behind that four square. On israel, they have made a number of commitments in terms of what they need to do on the ground in order to receive aid they are getting from the United States. With reports we have seen from mass graves at two medical facilities in gaza they destroyed, is that your current view they are living up to those commitments . Adv. Sullivan those reports were deeply disturbing. We have been in touch at multiple levels with israeli government. We want answers. We want to understand exactly what with the israelis on many levels. Youve seen some public commentary from the idf on that, but we want to know the specifics of what we circumstances on this work, and we want to see this thoroughly investigated. I cannot speak beyond that, because, of course, we are in the early days of understanding what happened. We have a series of commitments from the israelis with humanitarian assistance. That is the gong show . President biden spoke with Prime Minister netanyahu a little more than two weeks ago, and in the time that has unfolded since the conversation with Prime Minister netanyahu, we have seen a marked increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance that has gone into gaza and, importantly, a very significant increase in the amount of assistance going into northern gaza, where the u. N. And others have told us the challenges of malnutrition and potential famine are most acute. We think we have made a significant set of steps forward on this, but it needs to be sustained, and he needs to be increased even further. We have seen initial moves through crossings in the north, these are good steps, but we need to see that expanded, institutionalized, and ensure that on a city basis, the level and intensity and scope of humanitarian assistance meets the need, and we are going to stay focused until we ensure that that is the case. Thanks, jake. What kind of mechanisms does the u. S. Have in place to ensure that these longrange attack missiles will only be used within ukrainian territory and will not be fired into russian territory . Mr. Sullivan well, we now have an extended period of time where we have tested these commitments from the ukrainian government, which they have made to others as well, where they have said we will only use these on ukrainian sovereign territory, we will not use them beyond the border of ukraine. They have followed through on that commitment time and time again with respect to the systems we have provided them. We believe they will follow through on this as well. And regarding hamas, we have seen this video now, is it because it was insisting on provide life or as a propagation . Mr. Sullivan we have insisted on proof of life, so there has been no change in our position on proof of life, so i cannot speak to what caused them to release the video at this time. All i can say is this is an innocent young man being held hostage by a terrorist organization, and he should be released immediately, without condition and without delay. I have not had the personal opportunity to speak with his parents since the video was released. I dont want to speak further on this because of the sensitivity of the issue other than to say i was sitting with the president of United States going through all of the americans being held hostage in what we can do about them, what their status is. It is something he has personally very focused on, even as he celebrates abigails release. This is something that will be a paramount priority for President Biden and the United States. Can uss how recent this video was made . Does he have some sort of a date stamp . Can you pull back the curtain on abigail and her family, how is she, her spirits, her family, what was the moment like . Mr. Sullivan the moment that we got the video that showed her, we did it to the fbi hostage recovery cell. Those are the experts who have the technical capacity to look at that video and discern or at least assessed with as much specificity the answers to your questions. Im not going to get ahead of the assessment to make any discussions about time, recency, etc. I will make those discussions, and then when we have something public, we can share it with you. President biden can speak to this himself, because this was his meeting, his opportunity to see abigail, to see her family, to see her siblings. Abigail and her two siblings and her parents were killed on october 7, so they are still living with the tragedy of that. Abigail, of course, is living with the trauma of having been held captive for many weeks. But this was a moment of joy as well, because she was able to be returned safely to her family. And i think for the president , the most important thing was it was a reminder of the work still to do and how important it was for him personally and the government to do all that we can to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal, so that everybody can come home. This bill also authorizes the president to ease is that something he is prepared to do unilaterally, or will he have to consult with allies before making a decision . Mr. Sullivan well, the g7 has that collectively that russias assets are going to remain immobilized until they are put to use for recovery in ukraine. The precise way in which that happens, the mechanism is still being, is still a matter of consultation with our european partners. The ideal is that we all move together, that europe and the United States, especially since the bulk of assets are held in europe, come up with a common way forward for how we ensure that these sovereign assets actually go to work rebuilding and reconstructing ukraine. I will not go further than that today, because we are in the middle of intense consultations with our european partners. I can tell you this is going to be an important subject of consultation at the gs summit in june, but i will leave that for today. Can you talk about the roth invasion, what is the latest on the israeli invasion, do you expect them to hold off . Mr. Sullivan i would say that you hear a lot of different Public Comments from different israeli officials, different media reports, some on the record, some off the record, some on background circling dates, stating what is going to happen definitively, changing what is happening definitively. I am entirely out of the business as commenting, predicting, or represent exactly what israel will do when it comes to rafah. The u. S. Position has been clear, i stated it from this podium, the president has spoken to it, and we have had detailed discussions with the israelis as recently as last week by secure video to talk through not just our concerns but our views that there is a different way to go about dealing with the hamas threat in rafah, and succeeding in ensuring the longterm defense and security of israel, we are still in those conversations and we will still continue to press our perspective. I will leave it at that for today, because that conversation midstream and has not been concluded. Natio