The Biden administration is working to rapidly allocate the remainder of over $6 billion in military aid for Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, fearing the new administration will halt the weapons shipments, Politico reports.
According to two anonymous administration officials, the White House has directed the Pentagon to distribute the last of the appropriated Ukraine security assistance by Inauguration Day on 20 January. This comes after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington in September, when Biden ordered the accelerated delivery of the remaining aid.
The rush is due to concerns that Trump, who has criticized the billions spent on Ukraine, will move to end the assistance once he assumes the presidency.
“The first thing he would do is to roll back assistance to Ukraine,” said Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon official for NATO and Europe. “I would expect him to make a big show of that. He’d say ‘promise kept,’ but he’s going to halt it early, I’m certain of it.”
However, the ability to quickly get the remaining aid to Ukraine is limited, as the US can only send equipment that is already in its stockpiles.
“We have been sending whatever industry can produce each month, but the problem is you can only send these things as they are produced,” said Mark Cancian, a former Pentagon budget official.
The outgoing administration is working to obligate the $4.3 billion in funds to pull existing military stocks and the $2.1 billion to put new weapons on contract before the end of the year. But anything shipped in the coming weeks may not fully arrive in Ukraine until after Trump takes over, leaving the fate of the aid uncertain.
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