Biden’s administration claims it will need $11.7 billion additional to help Kiev.
On Friday, the White House requested that Congress approve $11.7 billion more in military assistance for Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia.
This sum was part of an emergency funding request totaling $47.1 billion. The Biden administration stated that it was needed for Covid-19, monkeypox and disaster relief.
This $11.7 billion package contains $4.5 Billion for military equipment, replenishment of Pentagon stockspiles and $2.7 Billion on intelligence and defense aid to Ukraine. It also includes $4.5Billion for budgetary support to the government in Kiev.
“We have rallied the world to support the people of Ukraine to defend their democracy and we simply cannot allow that support to Ukraine to run dry,”Shalanda, White House Office of Management and Budget Director wrote in a blog.
Additionally, the administration requested $2 billion in order to mitigate the adverse effects of conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia that have impacted energy supply in the US.
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White House: More Ukraine military assistance coming
In the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the US was the major backer, providing billions in financial, military, and intelligence support to the Ukrainian forces. Washington’s deliveries to the Zelensky government have included such sophisticated hardware as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, and combat drones.
Congress approved in May a $40 billion package of humanitarian and military support for Ukraine. Young says that three-quarters (or more) of the funding provided by lawmakers to Kiev have already been spent or committed. “As we said at the time, those resources were intended to last through September,”She explained.
Russia has repeatedly criticized the deliveries of weapons to Kiev from Washington and its allies, saying they won’t change the outcome of the conflict, but will prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO.
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Washington’s “ever more obvious and deeper involvement in Ukraine in terms of countering our military operation, in fact, puts… the US on the verge of turning into a party to the conflict,”Last month, Sergey Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, warned.
