‘The effect will be intensified’: Biden’s team acknowledges difficulties in providing aid to Ukraine

The reluctance of the U.S. House of Representatives to approve the request from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for support to Ukraine complicates the provision of assistance to Kyiv.

This was stated by Jake Sullivan, the Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security, during a briefing.

“It is already affecting our ability to provide Ukraine with what it needs, and this effect will only intensify,” Sullivan told journalists. It’s worth noting that the White House has stated that the U.S. has already spent 96% of the funds allocated for all directions of support to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, including weapons supplies.

Erin McKee, the Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), also stated that the U.S. government has run out of funds for direct budgetary support to Ukraine. Without new appropriations, humanitarian aid may come to a halt.

In turn, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that U.S. aid to Ukraine is likely to be reduced, so European Union countries must be politically prepared to compensate for it.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, there are concerns that by 2024, the budget will lack $29 billion without Western assistance.