In a report published by the Associated Press, the Pentagon's budget for Ukraine has seemingly run dry.
Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda (R) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during talks at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, on January 10, 2024.
The United States recently hosted a monthly gathering of 50 countries that are also out of money. At the time of writing the Pentagon is currently waiting on Congress to approve a new budget and green light more money. In the meantime, the United States has looked to other allied countries to close the gap. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while in recovery for a much-publicized prostate cancer surgery, declared, "I urge this group to dig deep to provide Ukraine with more lifesaving ground-based air defense systems and interceptors."
On Tuesday in Brussels NATO Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg announced a new joint contract of $1.2 billion to purchase 222,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition which are some of the most used munitions in this ongoing conflict. The purpose of this contract is to refill allies that have also had their reserves stretched to support Ukraine.
The Pentagon's press secretary, Sabrina Singh, stated "...even though we aren't able to provide security assistance right now, our partners are continuing to do that..." The last aid package was provided on December 27th of last year and was $250 million. Included in the package were 155 mm rounds, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and other high-value items that had been pulled from pre-existing United States stockpiles. At the time of writing the budget of $110 billion for Ukraine and Israel is currently stalled over ongoing back and forth between Congress and the White House regarding various policies in addition to extra security for the United States-Mexico border. However, since the Russian occupation in February 2022, the United States has given $44.2 billion in security assistance alone.
Despite the budgets seemingly running dry the United States and other allies continue to show support through other means. One of those means is the training of Ukrainian fighters. At the time of writing over 118,000 individuals have been trained with 18,000 of those individuals being trained by the United States. It's unclear when Congress will reach an agreement on a new budget and whether support for Ukraine would even be included in that budget. But it seems that a decision will need to be reached soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin's has given an ominous warning regarding Ukraine's statehood.
