“We donated the last package of available supplies that we had the funds for,” Kirby said. At the same time, he noted that US support for Ukraine ended “exactly when it needed it the most.”
The new aid must be approved by Congress, but Republicans are demanding that Democrats instead agree to tougher US laws to combat illegal immigration.
The United States has provided the latest military aid package
At the end of December last year, the United States handed over the last Twelfth aid package It costs 250 million dollars. It included ammunition and equipment for air defense systems, MLRS missiles, 155 mm and 105 mm artillery shells, anti-tank weapons and more than 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
In October, US President Joe Biden asked Congress to allocate $106 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Kiev was supposed to receive more than half of these funds ($61.4 billion), but the congressmen could not reach an agreement on this issue and the discussion was postponed until the second half of January.
In the new year, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, demanded that the Biden administration lay out a clear Ukraine strategy and lay out the ultimate goals of the war to begin working toward a financial resolution.
Senior US officials told Bloomberg that an agreement on US aid to Ukraine could be reached by February. Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller warned earlier that support would not necessarily be as large as it had been in the two years before the war.
After the Russian invasion, Ukraine became the largest recipient of arms from the United States since World War II. In 2023, the Americans provided military aid to the Ukrainians in the total amount of more than 24 billion dollars, and in 2022 – almost 27 billion dollars.
Is Ukraine on the verge of bankruptcy? The Prime Minister calls for support
At the end of December, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmihal asked emergency meeting Due to “extremely high uncertainty” about the budget with international donors in Kyiv. The head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Serhiy Marchenko, said that if the assistance is delayed, a hole of 29 billion dollars may be created in the state treasury.
Earlier, Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko warned that the government would not be able to pay the salaries and pensions of nearly 12 million Ukrainians if Western countries did not provide financial assistance to Kyiv by early 2024.
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