US Still Has $5 Billion In Available Unspent Military Aid For Ukraine

The Administration can spend that money for Ukraine supplies without Congressional approval. JL

Gordon Lubold and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

The Pentagon has more than $5 billion remaining in its coffers to provide weaponry and other security assistance to Ukraine even after Congress declined to include more funding for the war in a bill to keep the government open. The $5.2 billion is roughly equivalent to the value of the weaponry the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine over the last six months for its fight against Russia.

The Pentagon has more than $5 billion remaining in its coffers to provide weaponry and other security assistance to Ukraine even after Congress declined to include more funding for the war in a weekend bill to keep the government open, Pentagon officials said.

The $5.2 billion is roughly equivalent to the value of the weaponry the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine over the last six months for its fight against Russia, but administration officials said it is unclear how long that money could last. A number of factors contribute to the rate at which security aid flows to Kyiv, and officials believe the $5.2 billion could last only for another few months.

The sum is roughly 12% of the total $43.9 billion in security assistance that the U.S. has sent since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, leaving a sizable amount of security assistance still available.

But another pot of money the U.S. had been using for a longer-term program to refurbish Ukraine’s military and make it more compatible with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, is empty, administration officials said.

What’s more, an account used to replenish the Defense Department’s own arsenal after the provision of U.S. arms to Ukraine is now down to about $1.6 billion—insufficient to keep the Pentagon whole, officials said.

Aid packages have typically come every two weeks, and the next could come by the end of this week, officials said. But without knowing when Congress will approve more funds, the Pentagon may be reluctant to continue providing regular tranches of new equipment in order to save money to replenish the U.S. military’s own stocks, or in case of a national security emergency, at least until Nov. 17, when the current funding bill runs out, a Senate aide said.

The short-term spending bill signed by Biden on Saturday averted a partial government shutdown but omitted aid for Ukraine, raising questions about the future of U.S. support. The Biden administration had sought another $24 billion in Ukraine funding.