12 Apr, 2024 09:00
US has no ‘Plan B’ for Ukraine aid – Bloomberg
The US has run out of options to help Ukraine beyond hoping Congress ultimately passes a $60 billion aid package before the frontline starts to crumble under Russian pressure, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing unnamed officials.
According to the outlet’s sources, the administration of US President Joe Biden is growing increasingly “frustrated” with both Republicans and European allies over delays in funding.
The GOP has blocked Biden’s security package for months, demanding stronger measures to curb illegal immigration on the southern US border.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled earlier this month that the bill could come up for a vote soon with “some important innovations,” including providing Ukraine with loans instead of non-repayable aid.
Bloomberg cited officials lamenting the lack of a ‘Plan B’ apart from the long-awaited $60 billion package. One of the interviewees insisted that the EU start using profits generated by frozen Russian sovereign assets in the West to aid Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly labeled the freezing as “theft,” warning of retaliation if the funds are used to help Kiev.
Another Bloomberg source said the EU should urgently provide Ukraine with more US-made Patriot air defense systems from its own stocks, as the country is coming under recurring Russian strikes targeting its energy, logistics, and military infrastructure.
Ukrainian officials have complained about the lack of munitions, calling it an increasingly serious problem. General Christopher Cavoli, the head of the US European Command, estimated earlier this week that Ukraine was being “outshot” by Russia at a ratio of five to one. He also said that Russia produces three times more shells than all of NATO.
- With this in mind, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned the West this week that Kiev would “lose the war” unless it received a massive US assistance package.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Ukrainian economy is only able to function because of foreign aid, claiming that without regular cash infusions, it would promptly collapse.|
J. D. Vance’s Logic of Surrender
J.D. Vance: The Math on Ukraine Doesn’t Add Up
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) laid out his opposition to providing more funding for the war in Ukraine on Friday, arguing that even if Congress passes another $60 billion in assistance for its war against Russia, it won’t change the course of a war Vance believes Ukraine can’t win.
Vance, in an op-ed for The New York Times, pushed back on President Biden’s and Democrats’ assertions that Republicans are preventing Ukraine from defeating Russia on the battlefield, arguing: “This is wrong.”
- “Ukraine’s challenge is not the GOP; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field,” he wrote.
- “And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide. This reality must inform any future Ukraine policy, from further congressional aid to the diplomatic course set by the president.”
- McConnell argued on the Senate floor that “starving Ukraine of needed capabilities” is “strategic and moral malpractice.”
- But Vance says even if Congress passes the aid package, it will make little difference.
“Sixty billion dollars is a fraction of what it would take to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor. But this is not just a matter of dollars. Fundamentally, we lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war,” he wrote.
Speaking on the Senate floor earlier this year, McConnell argued the emergency defense spending package would “increase procurement of critical munitions, long-range fires, and air defenses and invest in our own defense industrial capacity.”
“This is essential for long-term competition with China and Russia,” he added, warning that without the additional spending to restore military stocks sent to Ukraine, America and its allies would be “outgunned in critical capabilities.”
“Our supplemental appropriations to support Ukraine have included heavy investments in expanding our defense industrial base and purchasing the cutting edge-weapons our own forces need to deter our biggest adversaries,” McConnell said when urging his colleagues to support the Senate package earlier this year.
He pledged to provide U.S. military assistance as long as Congress appropriated the money.
“Without supplemental funding, we are rapidly coming to an end of our ability to help Ukraine to respond to the urgent operational demands that it has,” the president warned.
- He said that even though the United States has doubled its production of 155 mm shells, it’s “less than a tenth of what Ukraine says it needs.”
“If we pass the supplemental aid package currently being considered in Congress, we could potentially increase annual production to 650, but that’s still less than a third of what Ukraine requires,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council did not respond to a request to respond to Vance’s op-ed.
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