Ukraine’s President Zelensky addressed U.S. senators by video during a classified briefing as the Biden administration urged Congress to approve the White House’s nearly $106 billion request for funds for the wars in Ukraine, Israel and other security needs.
On Monday, US Congress sent an urgent warning about the need to approve the military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kiev’s war effort may grind to a halt without it.
In a letter to House and Senate leaders and released publicly, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned the U.S. will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, saying that would „kneecap” Ukraine on the battlefield, reports AP News.
She added that the U.S. already has run out of money that it has used to prop up Ukraine’s economy, pointing out that if Ukraine’s economy collapses, it will not be able to keep fighting. „We are out of money — and nearly out of time”, she wrote.
President Joe Biden has sought a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs, but this decision has faced a difficult reception: there is growing GOP skepticism about the magnitude of assistance for Ukraine and even Republicans supportive of the funding are insisting on U.S.-Mexico border policy changes to halt the flow of migrants as a condition for the assistance.
Negotiations over the border security package broke down over the weekend as Republicans insisted on provisions Democrats said are draconian, aides said. Talks are expected to resume this week, along with a test vote expected Wednesday.
For context, Congress already has allocated $111 billion to assist Ukraine, including $67 billion in military procurement funding, $27 billion for economic and civil assistance and $10 billion for humanitarian aid. Young wrote that all of it, other than about 3% of the military funding, had been depleted by mid-November.
Meanwhile, the GOP-controlled House has passed a standalone assistance package for Israel as it fights the war with Hamas in Gaza, while the White House has maintained that all of the priorities must be met.
The Biden administration has said it has slowed the pace of some military assistance to Kyiv in recent weeks to try to stretch supplies until Congress approves more funding.
“We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight,” Young wrote. „This isn’t a next-year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now. It is time for Congress to act.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated in a statement Monday that House Republicans will insist on border policy changes as part of a Ukraine assistance bill, and he argued Biden has „failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers.”
The letter followed a classified Capitol Hill briefing on Nov. 29 for the top House and Senate leaders on the need for the assistance.
Republicans and Democrats in chamber agree on funding for Ukraine, as well as Israel, but funding has been halted for weeks by GOP demands that border security policy be included in a final package.
It is expected that Biden’s supplemental funding package will be pushed along this week, but Republicans are threatening to block its passage with a filibuster as they insist on border security provisions.
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