U.S. President Joe Biden (Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson)
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden does not have
enough time to spend the billions of dollars approved by Congress for arming
Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 27.
According to the report, the Biden administration still has over $6.5 billion that the U.S. Department of Defense can use to transfer weapons and equipment to Ukraine from its own stockpiles. However, U.S. officials noted that the Pentagon has reached the limit of what it can send to Ukraine each month without compromising its own defense capabilities and is facing “logistical difficulties” in delivering the weapons.
A member of Congress stated that to utilize the remaining funds in time, the U.S. would need to send over $110 million worth of weapons daily or nearly $3 billion in December and January.
“The remaining funds give the next administration significant leverage to halt or suspend supplies to Ukraine…,” said Michael Kofman, a senior research fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The first task for the [future] Trump administration will be to decide what to do with the remaining equipment and how best to prepare a new request to Congress for additional funding.”
A senior U.S. Department of Defense official stated that the Pentagon currently plans to transfer $500 million to $750 million worth of weapons to Ukraine each month from its stockpiles, exceeding the average supply in previous months.
“We are running out of easily accessible stockpiles that can be simply taken off the shelf and dispatched,” said the unnamed official.
Journalists reported that the White House, which assured two weeks ago that it could use up the remaining funds before the end of Biden’s term, is now backing away from this claim and emphasizes that Ukraine’s main problem is not weapons, but lack of manpower.
“Ukrainians currently have significant supplies of critical tools, ammunition, and weapons needed for success on the battlefield,” said a White House official.
“Today, the most pressing challenge for Ukraine is manpower.”
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Source: politics.einnews.com…
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