By Karoun Demirjian and Lara Jakes
The White House warned congressional leaders earlier this week that the United States would run out of money to send weapons to Ukraine by year’s end, severely jeopardizing Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against a Russian invasion if lawmakers fail to approve emergency military aid soon.
The urgent warning from President Joe Biden’s top budget official, delivered in a blunt letter, was the administration’s latest bid to pressure the Republicans resisting another infusion of aid to Ukraine to drop their opposition.
It came at a critical time in the war, as Ukraine struggles to push back Russian troops in a counteroffensive that has largely stalled. Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued to send a steady stream of his forces into the conflict, willing to endure high casualties amid signs of flagging resolve from Ukraine’s Western allies.
“We are out of money — and nearly out of time,” Shalanda Young, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote in the letter, which was sent to House and Senate leaders in both parties.
“Cutting off the flow of U.S. weapons and equipment will kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield, not only putting at risk the gains Ukraine has made, but increasing the likelihood of Russian military victories,” she continued, adding: “This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now.”
On Capitol Hill, Republican backing for Ukraine’s war effort has dwindled substantially in recent months. The party’s leaders have said they will consider additional aid only in exchange for one of their top policy priorities: major changes to border policy to severely limit the number of migrants entering the United States.
And on Monday, the White House plea fell on deaf ears in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Democrats have not done enough to earn the support of his members to send more money to Ukraine.
“The Biden administration has failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers,” Johnson said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, responding to the White House letter. “House Republicans have resolved that any national security supplemental package must begin with our own border.”
In recent weeks, the GOP’s ultimatum — and Ukraine’s vanishing funds — prompted a group of Senate Democrats and Republicans to try to hash out a deal on border policies. But the talks have faltered as lawmakers proved unable to resolve a series of impasses over some of the GOP’s most draconian border demands.
The issue is coming to a head this week, as the Democratic-led Senate prepares to vote Wednesday on more than $61 billion in Ukraine-focused assistance as part of a $106 billion national security package that would also fund Israel’s war effort in the Gaza Strip. The bill needs Republican votes to move forward. But the stalemate has left Democrats and the White House with no option to secure them other than pressuring GOP lawmakers who have supported Ukraine in the past to abandon their party’s border security demands, forecasting dire consequences if they do not.
“Any member of Congress who does not support funding for Ukraine is voting for an outcome that will make it easier for Putin to prevail,” Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told reporters Monday. “A vote against supplemental funding for Ukraine will hurt Ukraine and help Russia. It will hurt democracy and help dictators, and we think that that is not the right lesson of history and that every member Democrat and Republican should vote to support this.”
Further complicating the White House’s warning is an ongoing dispute within the Biden administration over just how urgently Ukraine needs additional aid.
Pentagon officials said they were surprised by the claim that the United States is out of funds, since they are still doling out over $100 million worth of arms and ammunition from stockpiles every week or so. They said they anticipate being able to stretch out shipments to make the remaining $4.8 billion last through the winter, when the pace of fighting is expected to decline.
Defense Department officials also expect that billions of dollars of new weapons and equipment purchased directly from manufacturers will be delivered to Ukraine over the coming months.
Since Russia attacked Ukraine in early 2022, Congress has poured $111 billion into Ukraine’s war effort, including security and humanitarian assistance. Some GOP leaders, such as Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, have enthusiastically supported such aid, arguing that the investments are not only a moral necessity, but also economically advantageous to the United States, as most of the weapons sent to Ukraine are produced domestically.
But as the battle grinds on and the U.S. presidential election looms, Republicans increasingly have raised skepticism about providing Ukraine with financial support, and have sought to use the war as a political cudgel against the Biden administration.
Republicans twice refused to include Ukraine war funding in stopgap spending bills to keep the government funded this fall, arguing that the issue would have to be tied to border security. Their demands prompted the Biden administration to ask lawmakers for almost $14 billion to hire additional Border Patrol and asylum officers and build detention facilities as part of the president’s $106 billion national security supplemental request.
Financial investments were not enough to satisfy Republicans, however. While Democrats have been willing to negotiate changes to asylum laws, such as raising the standard for migrants claiming a credible fear of persecution in their home countries, they were unable to swallow codifying more stringent detention policies, such as one that would keep migrants outside of the United States while waiting for their day in immigration court.
Johnson, who has voted repeatedly against aid for Ukraine, has told GOP senators in recent days that House Republicans would not support more funding for Ukraine unless it was attached to legislation passed by his chamber to revive strict Trump-era administration policies.
“I will not vote for any aid until we secure our border,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added, “I’m not helping Ukraine until we help ourselves.”
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