The United States announced on Wednesday the release of $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, its final available tranche without another vote in the US Congress.
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Negotiations between Republican and Democratic lawmakers to confirm the $61 billion package insisted on by American President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are still failing.
“It is imperative that Congress act as quickly as possible to advance our national security interests by helping Ukraine defend itself,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday.
The aid released Wednesday includes ammunition for air defense systems and anti-tank weapons, according to a State Department press release.
“Thank you for your help, we will win,” reacted the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriï Iermak on X (formerly Twitter) in the evening.
However, Senate leaders have already indicated that the American Congress will end the year without approving new funding – another disappointment for the Ukrainian president in a year marked by dashed hopes for a major counteroffensive and increasing pressure from the presence Russia's stamped at the congress is front side.
Did the White House warn that it would “run out of resources for Ukraine by the end of the year”?
“We only have one envelope of aid left” before the funds earmarked for Ukraine are “exhausted,” White House spokesman John Kirby announced Dec. 18.
“If it is sent, we no longer have authorization […]. And we need Congress to act immediately,” he warned.
Volodymyr Zelensky personally came to Washington in mid-December – his third trip to the American capital in a year – to try to increase the pressure.
But nearly two years into a stalled war — and with Congress already releasing more than $110 billion — more people are questioning the continuity of that support “for as long as it lasts.” Ukraine more persistence.
Republicans in particular began to see the bill as too high. They had made their support for this new package conditional on a drastic tightening of American migration policy. However, negotiations on this explosive issue were not completed in time.
Acknowledging that the sense of emergency in Washington has waned since the war began in 2022, President Biden called on Congress to match his request for aid to Ukraine with another request for around $14 billion for To combine Israel, an ally of the United States in the war against Israel Hamas.
So far in vain.
Since the start of the conflict, the Kremlin has been betting on a decline in Western aid, and any hesitation by Kiev's allies reinforces Russia's belief that its bet will work.
However, Congress's failure to pass this envelope does not mean the end of the United States' support for Kyiv.
American lawmakers return to school on January 8, and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders have simply stated their intention to validate this framework, which includes a military, humanitarian and macroeconomic component.
Things get complicated in the House of Representatives, which also has to approve these funds.
Your new president, Republican Mike Johnson, is not fundamentally against expanding American aid, but claims that it is not sufficiently regulated.