Yury Kobzar21:05, 03.11.23

Biden is running out of money that was previously allocated for the defense needs of Ukraine.

The Pentagon is being forced to reduce the size of military aid packages for Ukraine as previously allocated money is depleted and Congress has so far failed to pass a new multibillion-dollar program proposed by the White House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters this, writes Reuters .

Commenting on today’s aid package, she noted that the United States began sending smaller packages of military aid to Ukraine precisely because of the impasse in Congress regarding further funding for Kyiv’s defense needs.

According to her, the United States intends to support Ukraine as long as possible while the discussion of a new assistance program continues in Congress.

Problems of American assistance to Ukraine

As UNIAN wrote, today the United States announced the allocation of a new package of military assistance to Ukraine totaling $425 million. However, only 125 million of them are emergency aid, and the rest is funding for new defense contracts under which American industry will produce weapons for Ukraine someday later.

The problem with American aid is that there are not enough votes in the US Congress to pass a new defense support program for Ukraine. Republican deputies from among the so-called “Trumpists” are categorically against this, and without their votes it is impossible to pass the program.

To get around their resistance, Joe Biden proposed combining assistance programs for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan into one package and passing this decision through Congress in this form. According to the plan, $61 billion should be allocated for the needs of Ukraine.

However, Trumpists want to vote on aid to each country separately. To prevent the “overall package” from being cut, Joe Biden is threatening to veto the “individual” program for Israel.

(C)UNIAN 2023