White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, commenting on the latest announcement of military assistance for Ukraine, said that the United States will allocate smaller packages of such assistance due to the lack of a decision from Congress regarding additional funding.
Source: “European truth” with reference to briefing by Jean-Pierre
Details: Jean-Pierre recalled that latest US military aid package consists of two parts: $125 million – under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) program; providing weapons from US Army stocks) and $300 million – from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI; ordering weapons from manufacturers).
“With today’s announcement, we have exhausted the remaining USAI funds currently available to support Ukraine,” the White House spokeswoman said.
“And while we have PDA program balances to continue to meet Ukraine’s immediate battlefield needs, we are beginning to provide Ukraine with smaller packages to stretch our ability to support Ukraine for as long as possible,” she added.
In this regard, Jean-Pierre called on Congress to quickly approve the additional funding package proposed by the White House.
“Now, with another brutal winter of Russian attacks approaching, it is critical that Congress sends an important signal to the world about America’s resolve and takes action to accept the President’s supplemental national security request and show Vladimir Putin and the rest of the world that the United States remains firmly committed to side of Ukraine,” the official said.
The Biden administration still has about $5 billion from the budget approved by Congress last year to provide military assistance from the US stockpile (PDA program).
Recall that Joe Biden is trying to convince the US Congress to support aid to both Ukraine and Israel, and to approve a new $106 billion aid package containing more than $61 billion in funding for Ukraine.
But new House Speaker Mike Johnson is insisting that aid packages for Ukraine and Israel were considered separately by Congress.
2023-11-03 19:40:41
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