Ukraine will no longer receive military aid from the United States, says John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council.
“We donated the last package of available supplies that we had the money for,” Kirby said. At the same time, he noted that U.S. support for Ukraine ended “just when it needed it most.”
The allocation of new aid must be approved by Congress, but Republicans are demanding that Democrats in return agree to stricter US legislation to combat illegal migration.
At the end of December last year, the United States provided Ukraine with its final, twelfth aid package worth $250 million. It included ammunition and equipment for air defense systems, MLRS missiles, 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, anti-tank weapons and more than 15 million small arms ammunition.
The latest US military aid package. Biden appeals to Congress
In October, US President Joe Biden asked Congress to allocate $106 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Kiev was set to receive more than half of these funds ($61.4 billion), but members of Congress failed to reach an agreement on the issue and the discussion was postponed until the second half of January.
In the new year, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson demanded that the Biden administration formulate a clear strategy for Ukraine and outline ultimate war goals to begin working on a financial solution.
Senior U.S. officials told Bloomberg that an agreement on U.S. aid to Ukraine could be reached in February. At the same time, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller had previously warned that support would not necessarily be as strong as in the previous two years of the war.
After the Russian invasion, Ukraine became the largest recipient of weapons from the United States since World War II. In 2023, Americans provided military aid to the Ukrainians totaling more than $24 billion, and in 2022 almost $27 billion.
Ukraine on the verge of bankruptcy? The Prime Minister calls for support
In late December, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal requested an urgent meeting with Kiev’s international donors due to “extremely high uncertainty” over the budget. The head of Ukraine’s Finance Ministry, Sergei Marchenko, stated that delaying aid could leave a $29 billion hole in state coffers.
Earlier, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko warned that the government would be unable to pay the salaries and pensions of almost 12 million Ukrainians if Western countries did not provide financial support to Kiev by early 2024.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
