Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson, in response to the White House’s call to speed up the approval of assistance to Kiev, said that he had not received an answer to his concerns about the strategy for Ukraine, and the Republicans want to consider the request only with funds for protecting the state border.
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“House Republicans have decided that any additional national security package must start at our own border. We believe agreement can be found on two issues if Senate Democrats and the White House negotiate intelligently,” Johnson wrote on social media X.
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He emphasized that the US administration “failed to substantively respond to any legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy for Ukraine, a path to resolve the conflict and a plan for adequate control over the aid allocated by American taxpayers.”
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This is how he responded to the publication of a letter addressed to him from the budget office of the US President. The letter says that without Congressional action, the United States “will by the end of the year run out of resources to purchase weapons and equipment for Ukraine, as well as transfer them from warehouses.” The interruption in the flow of funds to Kyiv, as the White House budget office writes, “increases the likelihood of Russian military victories,” and aid packages have already become smaller and their delivery limited.
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By mid-November, the Pentagon had used 97% of previously agreed allocations for Ukraine, and the State Department had spent all of the funds. Aid to Ukraine advances US national security interests and supposedly prevents the conflict from escalating, the letter says. The department demands that new assistance be agreed upon without waiting until the end of the year.
