The Pentagon is unlikely to spend all the billions approved by Congress on Ukrainian weapons before Biden leaves office, officials say

CNN
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The Pentagon is unlikely to use all the billions of dollars approved by Congress to arm Ukraine before President Joe Biden leaves office, according to two U.S. officials and three defense officials.

The administration has less than two months to use nearly $7 billion, part of a larger package approved by Congress earlier this year to help Ukraine in its war with Russia. The funding allows the Defense Department to draw on its own supplies to ship weapons. However, due to shortages, the US has been able to send only limited quantities of weapons to Kiev in recent months.

For months, the U.S. has been pushing the limits of its ability to replenish its own weapons stockpiles, which has limited the Biden administration’s deliveries to Ukraine. The U.S. has expanded its capacity to produce critical munitions such as 155mm artillery shells virtually since the war began nearly three years ago, but the production ramp-up is not yet complete.

The Pentagon had pledged to use all remaining authority to provide military assistance as the situation became increasingly urgent given the scale of Russian attacks on Ukraine, including the recent first-ever use of an intermediate-range ballistic missile with multiple warheads.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

Last week, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the administration was “committed to using the full authority that Congress has given us.”

State Department officials informed Congress this month that the administration is still working on allocating the remaining funds, according to a congressional source familiar with the matter. But with just 55 days remaining until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the US still has $6.8 billion in authority to supply weapons directly from US stocks to Ukraine.

Trump is unlikely to continue the same level of support for Kyiv, and CNN reported Wednesday that his nominee for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, is weighing several proposals to end a war that the president-elect had claimed on the campaign trail , he could finish it in one day.

In the administration’s remaining time, a defense official said the size of each military aid package would likely increase, but acknowledged that using the remaining funds in such a short period of time “will be challenging.”

A senior Biden administration official said earlier Wednesday Ukraine should lower the recruiting age for its military from the current 25 to 18, calling the need “critical.”

The official argued that the most pressing need was not for weapons but for training fresh workers so that current troops could be withdrawn and those killed replaced.

“If you look at the front and the needs, the progress the Russians have made, especially in the East, the physics, the sheer math, you need bodies,” the official said. “You need workers. They need soldiers.”

According to a US official, the US was recently able to approve military aid packages totaling around $750 million per month. This fall, the Defense Department increased the size of military aid packages at the request of Biden and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the official said.

“We are basically trying to do everything we can to leave everything on the table and put Ukraine in the strongest position,” the official said.

Now the government is working to increase that amount to about $1 billion a month in the remaining time, a second U.S. official said, but that would still leave billions unused.

Both officials said large quantities of weapons and equipment, including hundreds of air defense missiles, will still arrive in Ukraine before the Trump administration takes office on January 20. It will then be up to the new government to decide whether to continue supplying weapons to Kiev or use remaining powers to send new military aid packages.

In September, Biden pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House. However, the U.S. was unable to send all the aid at once, instead breaking it up into smaller packages announced roughly every two weeks.

“As part of the security assistance increase announced by President Biden on September 26, the department remains committed to providing Ukraine with the capabilities it needs to combat Russian aggression by the end of the administration,” a defense official told CNN .

The Biden administration continues to announce military aid packages twice a month, but the U.S. is still far behind the pace needed to use the remaining money. In the previous two months, the U.S. announced aid to Ukraine totaling $1.9 billion in five different aid packages, a figure that would have to be tripled to take advantage of remaining donations from the Biden administration. The most recent package, announced on November 20, was worth $275 million and included much-needed artillery shells and drones.

Biden led a concerted effort to persuade some skeptical Republicans in Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to pass a supplemental funding bill in April that included $61 billion in aid for Ukraine.

“It will make America safer. It will make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership in the world,” Biden said as he signed the bill on April 24. The US announced a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine on the same day.

But the value of the aid packages quickly fell as the supplies of weapons and equipment the Pentagon could send to Kiev dwindled.