The US administration currently has about $250 million at its disposal to provide military assistance to Ukraine.

This was stated at a briefing by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

According to her, this is all the funds that remain from the $ 3.5 billion, the allocation of which was previously approved by Congress.

“As you know, we have allocated $3.5 billion for military security assistance.

We have approximately $250 million of that amount left.

Of course, we will work to provide these funds to Ukrainians as soon as possible,” she said.

According to Psaki, in order to continue military support for Kyiv, it is urgent to resolve the issue of further funding.

On Thursday, April 28, US President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve a new financial package to support Ukraine in the amount of $33 billion. At the same time, the lion's share of it will have to go into service for Kyiv and "strengthening security" in the region.

“The administration is asking for $20.4 billion in additional security and military assistance to Ukraine, as well as US efforts to strengthen European security in cooperation with our NATO allies and other partners in the region.

This includes $5 billion in incremental spending, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and $4 billion for the U.S. State Department's foreign military financing program.

It is noted that these funds will be used to provide Ukraine with artillery, armored vehicles, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, the development of its cyber capabilities, sapper work and a number of other purposes.

  • Pentagon

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Glowimages

At the same time, the Pentagon stressed that they do not consider the amount of several tens of billions of dollars requested by the president to be something out of the ordinary.

“I don’t think we would call it an escalation… This is a further development of events.

Not all of that $33 billion will go to defense… This is tangible evidence of our intention to continue to help Ukraine defend itself,” a senior U.S. military official said at a briefing in response to a reporter’s question about Washington’s ramp-up of military aid to Ukraine.

Long-term perspective

Notably, Biden's $33 billion request has a time frame for spending.

According to high-ranking officials from the presidential administration, the new financial package is expected to be implemented within five months.

"In our view, the President's request for funding is essential to ensure Ukraine's success in the next five months of this war," a senior White House official told reporters.

At the same time, he clarified that Washington expects their allies and partners, especially from among the G7 countries, to support American efforts to help Ukraine by continuing to "provide assistance at a comparable level."

His words were confirmed by Jen Psaki.

“I think we made the request for five months because we wanted to be able to do long-term planning and work with our Ukrainian and European partners,” she explained.

Recall that since the Joe Biden administration came to power, the total volume of military assistance to Ukraine from the United States has exceeded $4 billion. Among the weapons supplied to Kyiv are howitzers, drones, Javelin anti-tank missile systems, Switchblade loitering projectiles, armored personnel carriers, Mi-17 helicopters, all kinds of ammunition and ammo.

At the same time, according to Washington, the United States allocates additional funds to Ukraine also for humanitarian and economic needs.

However, in these cases, much smaller amounts are involved.

So, Biden asked Congress for $ 8.5 billion in direct economic assistance to Kyiv.

Another $3 billion is expected to be used to provide humanitarian support to countries affected by the food crisis and to provide assistance to displaced people.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, their monthly needs for humanitarian assistance are estimated at $ 5 billion. As the Minister of Finance of the Republic Serhiy Marchenko said on April 28 in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the Ukrainian authorities even managed to agree on appropriate funding with Western partners for the next three to four months.

At the same time, he called the “difficult question” how these needs will be met.

  • Head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko

  • AP

  • © Jose Luis Magana

“We are counting on the joint actions of the G7 countries, the World Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” TASS quotes the words of the head of the Ministry of Finance.

Marchenko also expressed confidence that Western countries should confiscate and use Russia's frozen foreign assets in favor of Ukraine.

hotbed of instability

According to Anatoly Antonov, Russian Ambassador to Washington, by pumping weapons to Ukraine, the United States is trying by all means to drag out hostilities in the republic.

“Obviously, Washington’s actions hide the desire to delay the Russian special operation by any means, trying to inflict maximum damage on Russia, and fight to the last Ukrainian,” the diplomat said in a statement published on April 26 on the Embassy’s Telegram channel.

Antonov also suggested that the United States wants to maintain a hotbed of instability in Europe in order to rally its allies around itself and maintain its position on the world stage.

It is also an effective way to divert the attention of ordinary Americans from domestic problems, the ambassador noted.

“The conflict in Ukraine and the image of Russia as an external threat are also actively exploited by the ruling circles to divert the attention of voters from their own failures in public administration and the growing coma of political and socio-economic problems in the United States,” the head of the Russian diplomatic mission explained.

In turn, the Kremlin has previously stressed that arms deliveries do not contribute to the promotion of a diplomatic settlement of the conflict.

“Pumping up Ukraine with weapons in various formats is not conducive to success in Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.

And of course, this will most likely have a negative effect, ”said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation.

Feeding the conflict

Experts interviewed by RT note that the United States, while continuing to allocate funds for military support to Ukraine, demonstrates its disinterest in a speedy resolution of the conflict.

“The sums spent and requested again for the military needs of Kyiv prove that Washington wants to ignite the conflict even more, to drag it out.

For the United States, it is much more important to create a threat to our country than to try to redirect this money for economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine, ”said Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber.

He also questioned the appropriateness of allocating such amounts to Kyiv, recalling that the same strategy for Afghanistan was not successful.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on Afghanistan, but the Taliban * multiplied all this assistance by zero.

So it is quite likely that Ukraine is now considered by some US circles as a kind of black hole for the absorption of funds, which may be beneficial to them, ”the analyst added.

In turn, Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute for the US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed the opinion in a conversation with RT that Washington is trying to drive the country into a debt trap in order to eliminate the chance of restoring its subjectivity in making independent decisions.

“America takes into account the fact that the current Kyiv authorities can surrender their political positions and make peace with Russia.

And in order to prevent such a development of events, the United States keeps Kyiv on a short leash, flooding them with money that will someday have to be returned.

Even if the government in Ukraine changes at some point, it will still be dominated by that colossal debt and obligations to the United States on it, ”explained Vasiliev.

The fairness of this assessment of the situation was also noted by Nikita Danyuk.

According to him, the United States is striving to make Ukraine not a junior partner or satellite, their goal is to turn the republic into “the dominion of an American state in Eastern Europe.”

“It is beneficial for the United States to drive Ukraine into a debt hole, to make it a life-long debtor, so that it loses its sovereignty completely.

Already today, Kyiv can fulfill its obligations to citizens only through external loans.

In the future, the country, at best, will face bankruptcy and the sale of everything it has to Western companies.

In the worst case, we will talk about the loss of statehood, to which Kyiv is moving by leaps and bounds, ”the expert concluded. 

* "Taliban" - the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.