The United States plans to provide Ukraine with another aid package by the end of December, after which Congress will have to act to provide further aid, the White House said Monday.
“When that one is done … we will have no more replenishment authority available to us. And we’re going to need Congress to act without delay,” said National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby.
The Pentagon still has the authority to supply weapons to Ukraine directly from the US Department of Defense stockpile. But the amount of weapons that the Ministry of Defense can transfer to Ukraine is limited by funding to replenish American stocks, which are almost gone.
On December 15, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord, in a letter quoted by Bloomberg, noted that the US Department of Defense was spending its final $1.07 billion on the purchase of new weapons and equipment to replenish stocks seized from Pentagon warehouses and sent to Ukraine, noting that up to There will be no funds left in these accounts on December 30th.
The White House called on the US Congress to “without delay” allocate the necessary funds to further support Ukraine, “to act to stand up for freedom and democracy in defense of our own national security interests,” Kirby said, as published on official White House website.
Earlier this month, the White House warned that without additional funding passed by Congress, the United States would run out of money to provide military support to Ukraine by the end of this year.
Lawmakers are actively negotiating in an attempt to reach an agreement on funding aid to Ukraine, but the possible timing of its conclusion remains uncertain.
Earlier, members of The Alphen Group, which brings together experts on strengthening NATO and European security, wrote an open letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives.
They called on Congress to approve new aid to Kyiv quickly and warned that Ukraine’s defeat in the war with Russia would be catastrophic for it and threaten the security of the United States and its allies.
