Not giving Kiev billions would mean letting Russia win, the US president has said
The US must give another $60 billion to Ukraine because “the whole world is watching,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, pressing Republicans in Congress to approve his ‘national security’ funding request.
The White House had bundled additional funding for Kiev with aid to Israel, weapons for Taiwan, and money for the US-Mexico border back in October, specifically as a way to get the Republicans on board. Now, however, Biden complained that the opposition was holding the Ukraine money “hostage” in order to push their “extreme partisan” border agenda.
Republicans are willing to “literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process,” Biden told reporters, arguing that not approving billions for Ukraine would harm Washington’s global prestige and “abandon global leadership.”
“Literally the entire world is watching: what will the US do?” the US president said. Without America to follow, the G7, the EU and Japan may not continue backing Kiev, he added.
“We’re the reason [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has not totally overrun Ukraine,” Biden said. “If in fact we walk away, how many of our European friends are going to continue to fund [Kiev]and at what rates?”
Petty partisan angry politics can’t get in the way of our responsibility as the leading nation in the world.
According to Biden, the “brave people of Ukraine” have “denied Russia a victory on the battlefield” and “defeated Vladimir Putin’s ambition.” Americans “should take pride that we’ve enabled Ukraine’s success” by supplying weapons and ammunition, he said, noting that he’s not prepared to “walk away” from that.
The White House informed Congress on Monday that it had pretty much spent all of the money Congress had previously approved for Ukraine, urging the House Republican majority to sign off on Biden’s request.
House Speaker Mike Johnson responded on Tuesday that Ukraine funding was “dependent upon enactment of transformative change to our nation’s border security laws,” as well as Biden providing Congress with “a full accounting of how prior US military and humanitarian aid” to Ukraine was spent “and an explanation of the president’s strategy to ensure an accelerated path to victory.”
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s defeat would be entirely Washington’s fault if the additional funding is not approved. That includes cash to pay government salaries, she said, describing it as “utterly essential.”