Democrats in the US Senate called on the Pentagon to investigate delays in providing military assistance to Ukraine. It is reported by The Hill.

Senator Richard Durbin took the initiative and sent a letter to Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine. In it, the Democratic senator points out that “the delay seems to impede the Ministry’s statutory obligation to provide Ukraine with security assistance at a critical moment.”

The senator adds that such a situation “raises serious questions about whether the Ministry of Defense employees were involved in any scheme aimed at a political opponent,” alluding to the allegedly politically motivated reason for freezing aid from the Trump administration.

“As a result, it is imperative that your department conduct a thorough analysis of the Department of Defense’s potential role in these allegations and present your findings to the congressional defense committees in a timely manner,” Durbin writes to The Hill.

Experts note that the call for an investigation came against the backdrop of the scandal unfolding in the United States, caused by a conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky.

Today's Ukraine is on the periphery of Washington’s interests, and both political parties in the United States now use it exclusively in the context of their domestic political goals, said Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University.

“Most likely, the Democrats will say that the delay in assistance once again helps Russia to untie its hands in the Ukrainian direction. They will say that Kiev needs American help, and that Trump froze aid to Ukraine because Zelensky did not provide any dirt on Biden’s son. In any case, we will see accusations from the Democrats and American mainstream media such as the Washington Post, CNN, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

Recall that Trump first froze the allocation of assistance to Ukraine through the Pentagon ($ 250 million) and the State Department (about $ 140 million), but after a conversation with Zelensky he changed his mind and the Pentagon resumed transferring money in early September.

In total, since 2014, after the coup in Ukraine, the United States has provided Kiev with military assistance totaling $ 1.5 billion, Reuters notes. The volume of allocated appropriations only increased after Donald Trump took the presidency.

Also, during the Trump administration, the American side began supplying Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine - they were also discussed in a highly publicized telephone conversation between Trump and Zelensky.

On pause

However, according to sources in the White House, Reuters reports that the Donald Trump administration still plans to delay part of the $ 250 million in funds intended as annual military assistance for Ukraine.

  • Vladimir Zelensky and Donald Trump
  • Reuters
  • © Jonathan Ernst

Officials say the Trump administration wants to exclude $ 30 million from budget spending by September 30.

They did not comment on whether this delay was connected with the previous order of the US president to freeze aid to Ukraine.

Earlier, the White House said it was studying the feasibility of providing Ukraine with annual military assistance in the amount of $ 250 million. At the same time, the US Congress has already approved the allocation of these funds for 2019, as well as other assistance programs to Ukraine.

Recall that the issue of the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine has become part of the domestic political scandal in the United States. Opponents of Donald Trump from the Democratic Party accuse the president of freezing funds destined for Ukraine to force Kiev to launch an anti-corruption investigation against former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Biden is Trump's most likely opponent in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

According to Andrei Sidorov, head of the department of international organizations and world political processes at the Moscow State University’s faculty of world politics, Trump has long planned to raise the Ukrainian issue as an opportunity to discredit Joe Biden.

“For Trump, the main thing now is that the Ukrainian issue is simply present in the media, because by doing so he will be able to strike at one of his key opponents in the 2020 presidential election,” the expert said.

Waste

Despite the scandal surrounding Ukraine, which gave the Democrats an excuse to launch the impeachment procedure, on September 24, Trump announced on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that he would continue to slow down the allocation of military assistance to Kiev. He added that such a policy would continue until the European Union began to take a more significant part in helping Ukraine.

  • Ukrainian military
  • Reuters
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

“They do not do this. Only the United States. We invest most of the money, and I ask: why on earth? ”Trump said.

The American leader voiced the same claim earlier, during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“We spend so much money - on Ukraine and not only. Why is Germany not spending more money? Why is France not doing this? Why do other European countries not render Ukraine more significant assistance? Why is the USA always doing this? I talk about this from the very beginning. I don’t like that only we are doing this, ”said Donald Trump.

However, the European Union does not agree with the assessment of the US president. So, the representative of the EU diplomatic service Maya Kosyanchich called the amount of assistance to Ukraine from the EU unprecedented.

“The support of Ukraine by the European Union over the past five years has been unprecedented and consistent,” Politico quoted the European diplomat as saying.

According to her, since 2014, the European Union and European financial institutions “have mobilized more than € 15 billion in the form of grants and loans to support the reform process” in Ukraine.

Germany was also reminded of its contribution to financial assistance to Ukraine. So, the publication Der Spiegel released material in which it says that Germany has allocated € 1.4 billion to Kiev since 2014. It states that Berlin has spent € 544 million since 2014 as part of a collaboration to promote Ukraine’s development. Another € 110 million was allocated as humanitarian aid, Kiev also received a loan of € 500 million, another € 25 million was allocated for measures to stabilize the situation in the country, and about € 200 million were transferred to Ukraine through EU channels.

Since the United States is not very actively involved in the Ukrainian direction under Trump, the EU countries also do not know what actions are required of them, says Andrei Sidorov.

“In my opinion, European countries have lost their landmark. Before, the EU clearly followed the United States, but as soon as the Americans turned aside, Brussels no longer knows what to do next, ”the expert noted.

Moreover, according to Sidorov, as a result of recent elections to the European Parliament, a new leadership came, even more pro-American than the previous one.

“If Trump really raises the issue of helping Ukraine within NATO, then I think there will be many participants who will agree with his demands,” Andrei Sidorov explained.

Europeans can allocate more money to Ukraine only if it truly takes concrete steps in the context of the implementation of the Minsk agreements and important state reforms, said Nikita Danyuk.

“I doubt that Ukraine will succeed, since any European pressure on Kiev in the context of the fact that it must comply with the Minsk agreements will be broken up on the position of the United States, including Kurt Walker, who is interested in continuing the conflict in eastern Ukraine ", The expert explained.

According to Daniuk, Europe does not want to become the main donor for Ukraine, given the low result of the interaction with the administration of Petro Poroshenko, when assistance was allocated to Kiev through various international organizations and in the form of credit tranches.

“I think Europe is now unlikely to allocate any serious amounts without significant results from Kiev,” concluded Nikita Danyuk.