US to send $300m in weapons to Kyiv under makeshift deal
Stopgap effort organized as lawmakers balk
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Tuesday it was sending up to $300 million in weapons to Ukraine, the first new aid package for the country since funding ran out in late December.
The package, pulled together from money Army accountants cobbled from savings in contracts that came in under bid, includes air defense interceptors, artillery rounds, and armor systems, senior defense officials said. A US official said the package also includes an older version of the Army’s longer-range missile systems known as ATACMS, which can travel 100 miles.
It is a stopgap measure at best, the officials said, but Ukraine is in dire need of air defense systems in particular, as Russia has continued its bombardment of towns, particularly in the east.
The makeshift solution would keep advancing Russian troops at bay for only a few weeks, one official said.
Announcing the aid package at the White House, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that “Ukrainian troops have fought bravely, are fighting bravely, are fighting bravely throughout this war, but they are now forced to ration their ammunition under pressure on multiple fronts.”
He said the new package would “keep Ukraine’s guns firing for a period, but only a short period.” Sullivan called for Congress to pass a new Ukraine aid bill “as soon as possible.”
The Senate passed an emergency aid bill including $60.1 billion for Ukraine. But the measure faces an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders have refused to put the measure to a vote. While congressional officials say there is a critical mass of support for continuing to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, the Republican Party is increasingly turning away from its traditional hawkish posture and belief in projecting American power and democratic principles around the world.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, who has opposed aiding Ukraine, must navigate a handful of ultraconservative lawmakers who have said they will move to oust him if he allows a vote on Ukraine aid without stringent immigration measures attached.
On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, urged Johnson to hold a vote on the Ukraine aid package. “I want to encourage the speaker again to allow a vote,” he said.
At the White House on Tuesday, President Biden met with leaders of Poland to discuss support for Ukraine specifically and bolstering NATO generally.
Polish President Andrzej Duda used the joint White House visit with his political rival, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to call on NATO allies to significantly increase defense spending and to press a divided Washington to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine.
Duda wants members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3 percent of their GDP as Russia puts its own economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its plans to conquer Ukraine. Poland already spends 4 percent of its own economic output on defense, double the current target of 2 percent for NATO nations.
The Polish leader made the call as he and Tusk visited Washington to mark their country’s 25th anniversary of joining the now 32-member transatlantic military alliance. It was a historic step into the West after breaking free from Moscow’s sphere of influence after decades of communist rule.
“Russia’s against Ukraine really demonstrated that United States is and should remain the security leader,” Duda said. “But other allies must take more responsibility for the security of the alliance as a whole. Two percent was good 10 years ago. Now 3 percent is required in response for the full scale war launched by Russia right beyond NATO’s eastern border.”
Biden marveled at Poland’s current defense spending and thanked the leaders for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees after Russia launched the February 2022 invasion. But he did not directly address Duda’s call for NATO members to ramp up spending.