The Biden administration plans to urgently transfer the remaining $6 billion aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump's inauguration, as the outgoing team prepares for the possibility that arms supplies will cease after the new president takes office.
According to the publication, the funds remaining from the April aid package to Ukraine are divided into two parts. $4.3 billion will go towards replenishing existing stocks, and $2.1 billion will be used for arms supply contracts with American defense companies.
One of the main obstacles to quickly providing aid is that the US can only send equipment that is already on store shelves. Although the allocated funds will reimburse the Pentagon for the cost of this equipment, they depend on how quickly new artillery shells and weapons are produced or contracts for their replacement are concluded.
As two administration officials told Politico, it usually takes months to deliver ammunition and equipment to Ukraine after the aid is announced, so anything sent in the coming weeks is unlikely to be fully delivered before the Trump administration begins, and the next commander-in-chief may stop the shipments before they even reach the ground.
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance have criticized the Biden administration for spending billions on military aid to Ukraine. "The first thing he will do is cut off aid to Ukraine," said Jim Townsend, a former senior Pentagon official for NATO and Europe. "I expect he will make a big show of it. He will say 'promise fulfilled,' but he will stop the aid prematurely, I'm sure of it."
There is still significant support in the Senate from Republicans advocating for continued aid to Ukraine, and Senator Roger Wicker, who is likely to be the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Biden last month urging him to expedite equipment deliveries to Ukraine and accelerate American production by the end of his term to quickly strengthen Ukraine for the upcoming struggle.
Trump has been saying for months that he will negotiate an end to the war before he reoccupies the Oval Office, and the remaining billions in military aid are likely to be used as leverage over Kyiv and Moscow, to be used or withdrawn at his discretion.
The official results of the US elections have not yet been finalized, but the fact that Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States became known quite quickly. At the moment, The New York Times reports that Donald Trump has 295 electoral votes, with 270 needed, and Kamala Harris has 226.
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory and expressed hope for a "peaceful transfer of power." "We must accept the results of these elections <...> This is the main difference between democracy and monarchy and tyranny. As a nation, we are committed not to a president or party, but to the Constitution of our country," Harris noted at a meeting with supporters on November 6.
Republicans also took the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Photo: Susan Walsh/AP