The United States has spent $113 billion trying to secure Ukraine’s freedom, giving Russia’s endangered neighbor one of the best-equipped militaries in the world.
President Joe Biden has warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would put Moscow in a position to attack NATO allies and could draw US troops into a war.
But his attempt to release another $61 billion has stalled in Congress, amid arguments over whether it should be tied to security funding for America’s own southern border.
As the war enters its third year, growing US concern over whether it should limit its losses has taken center stage in the Republican presidential contest, with Ron DeSantis criticizing Nikki Haley for supporting Biden’s ‘open-ended commitment’.
Now it could all be moot, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the Swiss to organize a “high-level peace conference” – but without Russia being invited.
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House last month
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (left) and former UN Ambassador. Nikki Haley (right) got into a tense exchange Wednesday night during the GOP debate in Des Moines about whether the U.S. should continue to fund the war in Ukraine
“With $35 trillion in debt, we don’t have enough resources to continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday during the GOP debate in Des Moines.
“We need to focus on our problems here at home, and we need to deal with the biggest threat we face, which is China.”
“This is about preventing war,” America’s former UN ambassador responded.
“If we support Ukraine, it is only 3.5 percent of our defense budget,” she added.
‘You have to be a friend to get a friend, and on September 12 we needed a lot of friends.
“We need to make sure we have the backs of the right friends because when Russia wins, China wins.”
The US increased military aid to Ukraine after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, but it reached levels rarely seen since World War II, when Putin tried to take the rest of the country in February 2022.
The US alone has allocated more than $47 billion in military aid to help limit Russian invaders to areas in southern and eastern Ukraine.
American largesse has armed Ukraine with 39 Himars artillery rocket systems, 76 tanks and 186 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
More than 100,000 anti-tank missiles have led the country’s defense, along with a state-of-the-art Patriot air defense battery.
Phoeniz Ghost and Switchblade UAS systems are among the drones patrolling Ukrainian airspace, and laser-guided rocker systems helped draw the sting of the Russian attack.
And billions more have been spent providing humanitarian and financial aid to the beleaguered country.
DeSantis alleged that the “globalist” Haley supported the financing of “salaries for Ukrainian government bureaucrats” and “paid pensions for Ukrainian retirees” with taxpayer money.
“You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations, but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador,” he said.
According to the Congressional Budget Officeonly half of existing resources will have been spent by the end of 2024, and only three-quarters by the end of 2026.
“The provision of security assistance to Ukraine has increasingly focused on improving Ukraine’s capabilities in the medium to long term, including the transition to more NATO standard weapons, and on helping to develop Ukraine’s domestic defense industry.” , the newspaper said. Congressional Research Service earlier this month.
But President Biden accused Republicans of giving Russian President Putin “the biggest gift he could hope for” when they rejected his bid for a new $61 billion package for Ukraine last month.
“They are willing to literally oppress Ukraine on the battlefield, damaging our national security,” he declared.
Germany is preparing for an attack by Vladimir Putin’s forces in 2025, according to leaked secret plans that emerged today.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – seen last month with President Zelensky and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol – told his senators that talks on a new aid package to Ukraine are going nowhere.
A third of Americans say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “major threat” to U.S. interests, according to a Pew Research poll last month.
But a poll for the Telegraph earlier this month found that a third of voters in six swing states said the US had spent too much on supporting Ukraine, while a large minority in five of the six said the aid should now are cut back.
“Russia will not lose this war. You have to recognize that reality,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said after last month’s vote.
‘I don’t like that reality, but it’s true. The only way this war can end is through a negotiated solution.”
