The government of USA announced on Wednesday the release of $250 million worth of military aid to Ukraine, practically the last such package with existing funds, pending votes in the US Congress to approve new ones.
Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over the new $61 billion funding, which is being pushed by the administration of US President Joe Biden and that of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, will continue in early January.
“It is imperative that Congress act immediately, as soon as possible, to advance our national security interests by helping Ukraine defend itself,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a press release released Wednesday by his administration.
The items contained in the package include ammunition for anti-aircraft defense systems, artillery elements, anti-tank weapons, etc.according to the announcement of the State Department and as reported by the French Agency and the Athens News Agency.
“Thank you for your help. We will win”, commented last night the general secretary of the Ukrainian presidency Andrii Yermak via X (the former Twitter).
Senate leaders made clear days ago that Congress would not approve the new funds before 2024, another uncomfortable development for the Ukrainian president as 2023 was marked by dashing hopes of a summer Ukrainian counteroffensive and an increase in pressure of Russia on the fronts.
The White House had warned that it would record a “shortage of resources” for Ukraine as “the end of the year” as funding is “running out,” as the president's National Security Council spokesman John Kirby put it on December 18.
“We will need Congress to act immediately,” he added.
Mr. Zelensky went in mid-December to Washington in person to apply pressure. But almost two years later the outbreak of war – in which Congress has approved a total of $110 billion in aid for Kiev – continued US support “as long as necessary” appears to be in doubt.
Republicans are not necessarily opposed, but link the approval of the funding to a hardening of US immigration policy. Negotiations on the explosive problem are protracted.
President Biden tried to get the $61 billion package approved by tying it to a $14 billion fund to help Israel in its war with Hamas. In vain so far.
The parliamentarians return to Washington on January 8. In the Senate, Republicans and Democrats have expressed the intention to pass a bill to help Kiev — in addition to the military aspect, the package also has a humanitarian and macroeconomic one. Things are more complicated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, however.
Source: News Beast
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