It appears unlikely the Biden administration will be able to use all of the remaining money Congress has set aside for military aide to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
With more than $6.5 billion left, the U.S. would have to ship more than $110 million worth of weapons a day, or just short of $3 billion in December and January, to spend the remaining funds in time, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
"I would say it's impossible," a congressional official told the Journal.
Trump said during his debate with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris that he would end Russia's war with Ukraine "before I even become president," and some U.S. officials are worried his administration could choose to withhold weapons to get Ukraine to the negotiating table, the Journal reported.
Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a U.S. think tank, told the Journal the remaining funds "offer the next administration considerable leverage to stop or suspend shipments to Ukraine."
"The Trump administration's first order of business will be to decide what to do with remaining equipment and how best to pursue the next supplemental request to Congress," Kofman said.
The Biden administration, which until two weeks ago said it was confident it could send the full amount to Ukraine before the end of the president's term, is now backing off that claim. It contends the major challenge for Ukraine now is fighters, not weapons.
The Ukrainians "now have healthy stockpiles of the vital tools, ammunition and weapons that they need to succeed on the battlefield," a senior White House official told reporters Wednesday, according to the Journal. "Today, the most pressing challenge for Ukraine is manpower."
The Pentagon is seeking to transfer $500 million to $750 million worth of weapons a month from its stocks to Ukraine, a senior defense official told the Journal. But any more than that would require it to draw down U.S. inventories to levels that would affect the military's readiness, which defense leaders are unwilling to do.
"We are scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of easy stuff to send off the shelf," the senior defense official said.
The Biden administration on Tuesday reportedly asked Congress for an additional $24 billion for weapons for Ukraine. Of that, $8 billion would go toward long-term contracts to supply weapons for Ukraine and $16 billion would pay to replenish U.S. stockpiles.
The incoming Republican-controlled Congress has signaled that it will be reluctant to approve sustaining support to Ukraine at levels provided during the Biden administration, the Journal reported.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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