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Biden Banking on Congressional Blessing for Billions in Additional Ukraine Funding

© AP Photo / Ross D. FranklinPresident Joe Biden
President Joe Biden  - Sputnik International, 1920, 10.08.2023
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Washington has been the biggest donor to the Kiev regime, with the total amount funneled to Ukraine since Moscow launched its special operation standing at over $60 billion. However, despite the funding and tons of NATO weaponry, Ukraine's highly touted counteroffensive has been stopped dead in its tracks by Russia’s military.
President Joe Biden reportedly intends to ask Congress to greenlight more supplemental funding, meaning billions of dollars will again be sucked into the black sinkhole that is “Ukraine aid.”
The emergency request is to total around $25 billion, according to cited sources, including approximately $12 billion for disaster relief and $13 billion for defense funds. It is the latter that will incorporate additional assistance for Ukraine, claimed the report. Budget caps would not apply to these emergency funds, it was specified.
Earlier in the week, reports stated that the White House intended to seek congressional approval for upwards of $10 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine, with US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller commenting that new aid announcements would be made "later this week." Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh had declined to comment on the reports, though, saying on Tuesday that the US has not yet run out of funding for Ukraine under the presidential drawdown authority. She added that the US was confident in the military capabilities it had already provided Ukraine forces, such as artillery, air defense, along with training.

Back in December, Congress passed $45 billion in additional funding to bankroll the regime in Kiev, with the amount intended to last through the entire fiscal year, ending on September 30. In total, the US has sent $66.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, including about $43 billion in military assistance.

Such figures are already off the charts, an American media report stated earlier this month, offering a detailed breakdown of the funding. According to it, $23.5 billion were for weapons and equipment from the Pentagon's stockpiles based on the presidential drawdowns. Also, a $18 billion handout was for security assistance pledged by the DoD to invest in more weapons, along with training, advising, logistics and equipment through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. $1.5 billion were for grants and loans for weapons and equipment for purchase through the Foreign Military Financing program.
However, what does the Kiev regime have to show for this? The counteroffensive that finally started on June 4 after a series of delays is barely keeping its head above water, with both Ukraine's officials and their Western string-pullers acknowledging this.

As of August 4, Ukraine had lost more than 43,000 soldiers and over 4,900 units of various weaponry, including 26 planes, 9 helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, including 25 German-made Leopard tanks, 7 French-made AMX wheeled tanks, and 21 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), as well as 747 field artillery guns and mortars, since the beginning of Kiev's counteroffensive, per Russia's Ministry of Defense.

A destroyed tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Troitskoye, Lugansk People's Republic. File photo - Sputnik International, 1920, 08.08.2023
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
US Senator: Ukraine 'Can't Win' - They're 'a Junior High Team Playing a College Team'

Support Dwindling For Bankrolling Proxy War

This comes as increasingly more Republican leaders in the House are reluctant to approve more Ukraine aid. After the US debt ceiling deal was finally hammered out in early June and an imminent government default dodged, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he didn't want to pursue an additional spending package above levels set down in the bill signed by President Biden that also curbs federal spending.
However, already then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), were cited as saying the bipartisan debt deal wouldn't necessarily stop Congress from passing supplemental funding for Kiev. For the record, the bill signed into law by Biden set $886 billion for defense in the next fiscal year. Accordingly, a supplementary funding request from the White House will set the stage for an anticipated showdown over spending, obfuscating Congress’ ability to avert a government shutdown when funding expires after September 30.
Ukrainian servicemen load a truck with the FGM-148 Javelin, American man-portable anti-tank missile provided by US to Ukraine as part of a military support, upon its delivery at Kiev's airport Borispol on February 11, 2022 - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.08.2023
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Support for Ending Ukraine Aid Growing in US Congress, Society
Meanwhile, support for ending financial assistance to Ukraine is mounting among US lawmakers and the American people, independent candidate for the US Senate from New York Diane Sare told Sputnik.
"I have to tell you, it is shifting. I believe the support for ending this funding actually is growing and I would say in the American people, it's the overwhelming majority."
Sare noted that the recent vote in the Senate on having an inspector general for Ukraine aid also proves that, despite the amendment failing in a 51-48 vote. Increasing numbers of lawmakers would like to know where the money is going, she pointed out. She added that believing that Ukraine is going to win is total "fiction," and the US should stop "living in a fantasy."
New Poll Reveals Majority of Americans Oppose More Aid to Ukraine - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.08.2023
The Final Countdown
New Poll Reveals Majority of Americans Oppose More Aid to Ukraine
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