No lend-lease in the US Defense Budget: expert explains what it means for Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the 2025 defense budget without extending the lend-lease for Ukraine, allocating $300 million in aid. The expert explains why the absence of the line item is not a critical issue.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the 2025 defense budget without extending the Ukraine's lend-lease. Vladyslav Faraponov, head of the Institute of American Studies and analyst at Internews Ukraine, explained that this decision is not critical for Ukraine. Restoration of the lend-lease would require a separate decision by Congress, and its absence in this bill does not affect us. He spoke about this in a commentary for UNN, explaining what the bill means and what its significance is for Ukraine.
In general, this is the main US defense budget. Before the full-scale invasion, it was important for us in terms of sanctions against Russia, as well as support for Ukraine, which is still there. The main problem is that our needs have grown significantly. As for the importance of this draft law, let's just say that without it, we would not be able to move forward. It would inevitably have been adopted. As for the landlord, to be honest, I don't quite understand the disappointment about it
According to him, it would have been an extraordinary or fantastic success if it had included a provision for a landmark for Ukraine.
"Because President Biden signed the law on lend-lease on May 9, 2022, but it expired on September 30, 2023. It still requires a separate decision of Congress to renew it. I am convinced that a provision in the defense budget alone would not be enough. Let me try to explain it very simply: if the budget had stated that the United States could provide assistance to Ukraine under the Lend-Lease Act, a separate Lend-Lease Act would still have to be passed. Therefore, it is not a tragedy that it is not in this budget. A provision for its presence would not mean that, for example, from January, the Biden administration and then the Trump administration could start sending aid to Ukraine. So I don't understand this disappointment. If there was no political will to pass a separate bill, either a new one or an extension of the existing one, then we should not have hoped that this issue would be resolved through the defense budget. This is naive and unrealistic," said the head of the Institute of American Studies.
Faraponov added that there is nothing surprising in this draft law - it is an adequate development of events. "We may not like it very much, but it is normal," he said.
It is worth noting that Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova reportedthat this year's NDAA bill approved by the Senate contained a provision to extend the term of the Ukraine Democracy Protection Act, and the embassy actively supported it. However, the bill approved by the House of Representatives did not contain such a provision. The consolidated text of the bill does not include a corresponding provision.
"On her part, it was written to demonstrate her work, but, again, I did not see what was provided for in the version she is talking about. It was noted that one of the possible versions had such a provision, but it's just like in Ukraine, when a bill is registered, it doesn't mean it will be passed in the second reading. This is a normal legislative process. If there was no political will in the United States to pass a separate bill, we should not have hoped that this issue would be resolved through the defense budget," Faraponov said.
He added that, in general, it is not good for us that such a small amount of money is provided for Ukraine - $300 million.
"If we could increase this amount to at least 500 million or even a billion, it would be much better. But 300 million is also better than nothing," he said.
Forecasts of US aid to Ukraine
"We must clearly separate the issues, because when everyone says: "Trump will stop aid to Ukraine," this is not a correct statement. The question is whether Trump will support a new bill that will provide aid to Ukraine. It is unlikely, but he will not prevent the allocation of funds that have already been voted for or if the Biden administration does not have time to announce them, because these funds should go to certain areas. I don't think Trump will do that. He already tried to do this in 2019 and was impeached. I also don't think that until we understand how Trump plans to help end the war, he will politically support any initiative to continue helping Ukraine," Faraponov concluded. And the registration of a new bill, which has already been mentioned in Congress, does not seem possible yet.
