NYT: Biden administration may not have time to use funds allocated to help Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
The Biden administration may not use all the funds allocated by Congress for military assistance to Ukraine by the end of the term. The use of the remaining funds will depend on the decisions of the future Trump administration.
The Biden administration is unlikely to spend all 5.6 billion dollars that Congress has allocated to send weapons and other military aid to Ukraine, writes The New York Times, citing a senior Defense Department official, reports UNN.
The administration plans to announce additional aid to Ukraine by the end of the year. But it will be difficult to rush the remaining amount to the battlefield before the Trump administration takes office next month, the official told reporters.
On Tuesday, the first official said the administration would use some of the $5.6 billion remaining in the presidential budget. This would allow the administration to transfer Pentagon stockpiles to Ukraine instead of waiting the months or years it could take for defense contractors to produce weapons under new contracts.
“We will continue to make cuts through the rest of this administration,” he said. “But $5.6 billion is a significant amount of authority, so I certainly anticipate that there may be authority left over that will carry over to the next administration and be available for use.
On Tuesday, a top government official said the administration is likely to use the full $1.2 billion remaining in the Security Assistance Initiative, which allows Kyiv to buy directly from the defense industry.
Whether the Trump administration will use this money to help Ukraine is a big question, the NYT writes.
President-elect Donald Trump has been deeply skeptical of American support for Ukraine and has promised to end the war quickly. However, he did not say how he would do it.
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