To do this, Ukraine must first exhaust the aid package from Congress.

After the end of funding for US budget programs for military support to Ukraine, Kiev will be able to apply for the supply of weapons under Lend-Lease . 

This was announced by the Ambassador of Ukraine in Washington Oksana Markarova in an interview with  Voice of America .

“The position of the Pentagon is that now, when there are these programs for the actual grant, gratuitous transfer of weapons to us, the focus will be on them. The Pentagon’s focus now is to find the weapons we need as quickly as possible and provide them to us through these programs,” Markarova explained.

She noted that lend-lease is an additional tool that Ukraine will begin to use more actively if necessary, when funds from other programs run out.

“Then there will be two options. Either we quickly connect Lend-Lease at this moment, or we turn to Congress with additional requests. More precisely, we turn to the US administration, and the administration turns to Congress,” the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States added.

According to her, the money from the support program must be used before the end of the US fiscal year in September. Markarova does not rule out that they may run out even before that.

“It is difficult to say when these funds will run out – we want them to be provided to us faster. Perhaps they will run out earlier – but so far it is difficult to talk about it,” the ambassador summed up.

As UNIAN previously reported,  the United States increased assistance to Ukraine in the new defense budget , but there are strict conditions.

(C)UNIAN 2022