Pentagon Implores Congress To Provide Ukraine Defense Funding
By DoD News
By David Vergun
The Defense Department is beseeching Congress to pass the supplemental budget request that President Joe Biden initially made in August to continue to meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, who held a news conference Thursday.
“The urgent need for this package to get approved and passed by Congress continues to grow,” she said. As a result, “we have been forced to meter out our support to Ukraine.”
DOD used 95% of the initial $62.3 billion that it had in Ukraine supplemental resources, from when the full-scale invasion by Russia into Ukraine occurred in February 2022.
All of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding has been expended, she said.
A small amount of presidential drawdown authority funding is available, but packages to Ukraine have been getting smaller and smaller, she said.
Another meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will occur later this month, she noted, adding that allies and partners are continuing to support Ukraine, as is the U.S.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held a news conference in Tokyo, yesterday, during a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers, in which he said that the G7 has led the world in galvanizing and sustaining support for Ukraine.
To put Ukraine on a solid foundation for next year, the U.S. must help Ukraine do four things simultaneously, he said.
- Keep fighting to win back its territory.
- Build a world-class military force to ensure maximum deterrence for the long term and make clear to President Vladimir Putin that he cannot and will not outlast Ukraine and he cannot and will not outlast all of Ukraine’s supporters.
- Kick-start economic recovery and growth and bring more hope and more opportunity to the Ukrainian people.
- Accelerate the reform process to speed Ukraine’s path to the European Union and to attract investment.
