Never Ending: $8 Billion More for Ukraine, Escalation Possible

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According to Reuters, the United States plans to send more than $8 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.

The Biden-Harris administration is holding urgent discussions with Congress to allow it to use up $5.6 billion in military aid for Ukraine before Sept. 30 – the end of the federal fiscal year. The clock is ticking.

The package will include precision glide bombs, an additional Patriot battery, and more air defense missiles.

They Want to Send As Much As Possible Before November

The US plans to pledge a year’s worth of aid all at once in case Trump wins.

Politico was the first to catch wind of the spend-big strategy. Reuters confirmed the plan. The administration of whoever is running the country reportedly plans a smaller aid package that will be sent faster.

When the U.S. Congress finally approved $61 billion in further aid to Ukraine back in April, the administration moved quickly to begin spending the most flexible money within that funding. Back-to-back batches of aid included urgently needed artillery ammunition and air-defense missiles.

According to Forbes, the money we borrow or print comes from “presidential drawdown authority,” or PDA. The administration also taps a separate pool of money under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays U.S. contractors to build brand-new weapons—on a months- or years-long timeline—and ship them to Ukraine once they’re complete.

Zelensky Wants the US in Ukraine

In an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky argued that the Biden administration should equip his nation with additional arms and authorize his military to strike deeper into Russia.

The Biden administration has been considering such a move but has not given the green light.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia is likely to retaliate with greater force if the U.S. and its allies permit Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said this past week that he planned to lower the threshold for his country’s use of nuclear weapons. He also said he would be prepared to use a nuclear weapon in response to an attack carried out with conventional weapons that creates “a critical threat to our sovereignty.”

Mr. Zelensky came to the US with a “victory plan” that included a wish list of advanced weaponry and a request for “security guarantees” coordinated among all of Ukraine’s allies.

According to the NY Times, when asked exactly what he meant by security guarantees, Zelensky said that he meant a “strong, strong army” and a “real understanding that we will be in NATO” rather than mere promises that Ukraine will join sometime in the future.

Why do we need another dictatorship in NATO that can’t even defend itself?

Mr. Zelensky has hinted he might be open to peace talks with Putin, but only if he can engage in them from a position of strength and without needing to concede any Ukrainian territory. That’s a no-go with Russia.

 


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