Mike Johnson halts Biden's $24B Ukraine aid plan
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, has ruled out the current Congress's acceptance of a new aid package for Ukraine. President Joe Biden had requested this. Johnson announced that he would wait for guidance from the new president on this matter.
The Speaker responded on Wednesday to a request from the Biden administration, which called for the inclusion of $24 billion in aid for Ukraine, including $16 billion for replenishing U.S. arsenals and $8 billion for purchasing new weapons for Kyiv in the negotiated budget provision.
"’I'm not planning to do that. As we predicted and as I said to all of you, weeks before the election, if Donald Trump is elected it will change the dynamic of the Russian war on Ukraine, and we’re seeing that happen," Johnson said during a press conference.
We have a newly elected president and we’re going to wait and take the new Commander in Chief’s direction on all that so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now," he added.
Biden won’t make it in time
President Biden announced that by the end of his term, he would use the funds allocated by Congress in the last adopted aid package for Ukraine. As for military equipment, less than $6 billion remains. According to reports from the "Wall Street Journal" and CNN, Biden is unlikely to manage this, due in part to logistical difficulties and concerns about excessively depleting American arsenals.
When asked about these reports, a National Security Council spokesperson did not give a direct answer but referred to a recent statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Sullivan reiterated that Biden instructed the administration to fully utilize the funds by the end of his presidency.
Sullivan also announced that by January 20, the U.S. would send Kyiv hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds and thousands of additional missiles and other equipment to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position before any potential negotiations with Russia.
Trump wants a quick end to the war
If the administration does not manage to deliver all the equipment despite these efforts, the remaining funds will be at Donald Trump's disposal. Trump has suggested that he would persuade Russia and Ukraine to end the war quickly.
His chosen special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Gen. Keith Kellogg, has advocated for threatening to halt aid to Kyiv to force Ukrainian authorities to negotiate or for threatening to significantly increase support to achieve the same outcome with Vladimir Putin.
