US President Joe Biden has urged Congress to approve new funds for Ukraine, and has warned that if Russian leader Vladimir Putin wins the war, “it will not stop.” “We cannot let Putin win,” Biden said on the same day that the Senate, with a Democratic majority, votes on a budget package of about $105 billion that includes more than $61 billion in military aid for the Ukrainians.
In addition, he has announced a new aid package for Ukraine of $175 million from already approved funds. Includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
Congress has been discussing for months the appropriateness of approving more military aid for Ukraine and many Republicans question whether the United States should continue financing a war to which it has already allocated more than $75 billion.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday in which he warned that without promoting profound reforms to regulate immigration, his group will not support funds for Ukraine.
“I am willing to make important concessions on the border. We need to fix the border system. It doesn’t work. And so far I haven’t gotten a response,” Biden said in an appearance before the press at the White House.
The White House warned this Monday that at the end of the year the US Government will not have money to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia and will be left without resources to acquire more weapons and equipment for kyiv.
By mid-November, the US Department of Defense had already used 97% of the $62.3 billion in supplemental funding it had received and the State Department had used the $4.7 billion in military assistance funding it had allocated.
But as Biden insisted, more money is needed and Republicans are committing that aid in exchange for immigration reforms. “Let me be clear. We need real solutions. I put a comprehensive plan on the table on my first day in office. I made it clear that we need Congress to make changes,” added the president, who has stressed that he is willing to do “much more ” about.
Biden said he was prepared to address even “a change in policy” and stressed that he has requested funding for more border agents and judges and that it is the Republicans who must decide if they really want a solution on the border with Mexico.
Hours before the Senate votes on the new package, Biden has warned that Republicans are eager to give Putin “the greatest gift he could ever wish for”: for the United States to abandon its global leadership.
“We have all seen the brutality he has wrought in Ukraine, invading another country, attempting to subjugate his neighbors to his iron fist, committing atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, attempting to plunge them into the cold and darkness of winter by bombing their power grid,” has lamented.
The White House warned this week that the United States is running out of time and money to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion.
On the other hand, representatives of the governments of the United States and Ukraine have signed an agreement to accelerate the co-production of weapons and the exchange of data at a conference held on Wednesday in Washington.
The letter of intent was signed at a meeting of U.S. and Ukrainian industry and government representatives, and will “prioritize co-production and sharing of technical data to address the urgent operational needs of the Ukrainian armed forces,” declared Jason Israel, Director of Defense Policy and Strategy at the White House National Security Council, to an audience of more than 200 people gathered in the Department of Commerce auditorium.
Previously, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, canceled at the last minute a speech he had planned to deliver behind closed doors before the United States Senate. His speech had been organized by the White House to promote the aid package.
The idea was that the Ukrainian president could convince Republican senators who are reluctant to approve the economic package because they do not share the priorities of the White House.