Biden requests more funds for Ukraine

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Sep 17:14
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An additional $11.7 billion will be requested in emergency funding for military aid to Ukraine.

Washington requests supplemental funds for Ukraine military aid.

The Biden administration asked Congress Friday to approve another $11.7 billion in military aid for Ukraine, a sum included in an emergency funding request for $47.1 billion which will cover funding for the Covid-19 surge, monkeypox, and disaster relief efforts.

$4.5 billion of the Ukraine aid will fund military equipment and the replenishment of Pentagon stockpiles, $2.7 billion on defense and intelligence aid for Ukraine, and the remaining $4.5 billion is dedicated for budgetary support for the government in Kiev.

“We have rallied the world to support the people of Ukraine to defend their democracy, and we simply cannot allow that support to Ukraine to run dry,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young wrote in a blog post.

$2 billion will also allocate to alleviate the effects of the conflict in Ukraine, as well as Western sanctions imposed on Russia affecting energy supplies in the US.

The US has been Ukraine's top sponsor in its conflict with Moscow, providing the Ukrainian forces with billions of dollars in military and financial aid, as well as intelligence data.

Washington’s deliveries to the Zelensky government have included such sophisticated hardware as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, and combat drones.

Congress approved a $40 billion military and humanitarian support package for Ukraine in May. On August 8, the US announced $1 billion in extra aid for Ukraine.

Another $775 million were approved on August 19, which constituted then the nineteenth drawdown of equipment from the US department of defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.

According to Young, around three-quarters of the aid that lawmakers provided to Kiev has already been disbursed or committed. “As we said at the time, those resources were intended to last through September,” she explained.

Russia has repeatedly criticized the deliveries of weapons to Kiev from Washington and its allies, saying they won’t change the outcome of the conflict but will prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a confrontation between Moscow and NATO.