Russia has repeatedly warned that aid will only serve to prolong the conflict and any cargo entering Ukraine will be considered a legitimate military target.
The United States has already spent more than $113 billion providing military and other aid to Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly warned that aid will only serve to prolong the conflict and any cargo entering Ukraine will be considered a legitimate military target.
National Security adviser Jake Sullivan and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers during a private meeting that Russia could win the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of weeks or months if Congress does not approve additional aid for the Kiev regime, US media reported on Friday.
According to two people familiar with the meeting, via US media, the two high-ranking aides said that Ukraine will soon run out of air defense missiles and lose its artillery capabilities. One White House official described the description as “incredibly stark.”
In December, the US announced that it had allocated the last tranche of aid to Ukraine that has been approved by Congress.
“We have given now Ukraine the last security assistance package that we have funds to support right before New Year’s, right after Christmas. And we’ve got to get support from Congress so we can continue to do that,” Sullivan told reporters at the time.
Ukraine is facing more than a funding crisis, it is also facing a lack of personnel on the frontline. It was reported in Western media outlets last fall that the average age of a Ukrainian soldier had increased to 43 years. It also lifted restrictions on female soldiers, putting them into machine gunner, tank commander and other frontline roles.
Even with its air defense operational, Russia has shown its capability to hit targets all over the country.
Still, an influx of military aid for Ukraine could prolong the conflict longer, resulting in more deaths. For months, US President Joe Biden has demanded that Congress pass an additional $60 billion in aid, which would be the largest single package sent to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s special military operation.
While the US Senate has at times seemed ready to pass a compromise funding bill that would include Biden’s request, House Republicans have steadfastly blocked it, demanding significant border security reforms that most Democrats would have difficulty selling to their voter base.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is insisting that a border bill include stronger border barriers and reforms to make it easier to arrest and deport asylum seekers and undocumented migrants already living in the United States.
“We’re not insistent upon a particular name of a piece of legislation, but we are insistent that the elements have to be meaningful,” Speaker Johnson told reporters after the White House and Senate Democrats said they planned to reject a House-passed border bill.
“We understand that there’s concern about the safety, security, sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty, and our safety and our security,” he added.
There have also been signs of cracks behind the scenes between Ukraine and its biggest benefactor. In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky skipped a planned speech to the US Senate during which he was scheduled to make his pitch to lawmakers on why they should authorize more aid. When he finally did deliver a speech to lawmakers, on December 22, only 86 of 213 House Republicans showed for the speech and it was reported that those who did attend and were against the aid did not appear convinced.
Biden pledged that the United States would support Ukraine for as long as it took. But in the end, the choice could be taken out of his hands. Congress has turned against it, at least without major concessions on the border. NATO allies have openly opposed further aid. And with dozens – if not hundreds – of videos of Ukrainian Armed Forces forcing men into vans to be shipped to the front line, it’s not clear how many Ukrainians are still willing to fight for the Zelensky regime.
“People are being thrown out, thrown from the streets, the buses,” former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Wednesday. “Ukrainians don’t want to fight. And their laws are being broken by throwing them to military camps and then throwing them to the front lines right away, without any tactical experience at all.”
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