Biden to ask for more money for Kiev
US President Joe Biden will appeal for continued funding for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia in his remaining months in office, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS News on Sunday.
The Biden administration intends to use all the money appropriated by Congress for Ukraine-related spending before Donald Trump takes office in January. The Republican president-elect is expected to drastically reduce assistance to Kiev, either forcing European members of NATO to shoulder the burden or nudging the Ukrainian government to seek peace with Russia through concessions.
“President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan said in an interview on ‘Face the Nation’.
The US government has several billion dollars left to tap. Sullivan did not offer any details on when or if Biden would ask lawmakers to authorize more spending, only stating that the president “will make the case that we do need ongoing resources for Ukraine beyond the end of his term.”
The Biden administration has vowed to stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia. Moscow considers the conflict to be a US-led proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainian troops serve as ‘cannon fodder’.
The US strategy remains correct, Sullivan maintained. Economic sanctions are making life harder for Moscow, and ultimately “the picture for Russia looks increasingly bleak as time goes on,” he claimed.
Russian forces currently have dominance on the battlefield, with progress by troops estimated to be at its highest rate in months. Kiev is struggling to replenish combat losses through mandatory conscription as large numbers of fighting-age men reportedly avoid the draft.
The restrictions imposed by the US and its allies on Russia even before tensions over Ukraine escalated into open hostilities in February 2022 have failed to produce the debilitating effect promised by their proponents. In one recent sign of Russian macroeconomic stability, the value of the country’s gold reserves surpassed $200 billion for the first time ever in October.
