An M1A2 Abrams tank.
US Army/Spc. Joshua Taeckens
A senior official told The Washington Post that US aid for Ukraine may not go on indefinitely.
The official said Biden’s staff has told Ukraine the US “can’t do anything and everything forever.”
Other officials told The Post aid to Ukraine might be harder to pass with a GOP-controlled House.
Ukraine’s leaders have been told that aid from the US may not last forever, an official from President Joe Biden’s administration told The Washington Post this week.
The senior official told The Post the Biden administration has a “very strong view” that continually approving large aid packages for Ukraine will be difficult with a Republican-led House.
“We will continue to try to impress upon them that we can’t do anything and everything forever,” said the official, referring to conversations the administration’s staffers have had with Ukraine’s leaders. The official was granted anonymity by The Post to talk about sensitive foreign policy matters.
Biden said during his State of the Union address on February 7 that the US will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” But the senior official told The Post that Biden’s undertaking did not “pertain to the amount of assistance” that the US might give Ukraine in the future.
Speaking to The Post anonymously, several administration officials also said they have told Ukraine’s government that now — while the US and other allies are still sending economic and military aid — is Ukraine’s best chance to launch a full offensive against Russia, to try to turn the tide of the war.
The Post’s report comes amid news reports that Russia may be launching a renewed assault on Ukraine. The BBC reported that Russia is attempting to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut before the first anniversary of the Ukraine war on February 24.
On February 3, the Department of Defense said the US has, since the beginning of Biden’s presidency, committed $29.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. This sum was sent in the form of military hardware, including anti-aircraft and anti-armor systems, howitzers, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and M1 Abrams battle tanks.
But the US is still holding back on sending long-range missiles to the war front, per Politico. The Pentagon is concerned that sending these Army Tactical Missile Systems to eastern Europe might deplete the US military’s resources, Politico reported, citing four people with knowledge of talks between Pentagon officials and Kyiv’s representatives.
The Biden administration is also facing pressure from the GOP to halt aid to Ukraine. On February 9, 11 House Republicans including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene backed a resolution calling for an immediate end to all “military and financial aid to Ukraine.” While the 11 lawmakers are a small faction within the GOP, their vocal opposition to continued US aid for Ukraine could jeopardize the passage of further aid packages.
Europe’s militaries, meanwhile, are emptying their military arsenals to send howitzers to Ukraine. Denmark, for one, is sending all of its Caesar howitzers to Ukraine, at the cost of delaying its own military build-up.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that Ukraine is “consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles.”
“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” Stoltenberg said. “This puts our defense industries under strain.”
Representatives for the White House and the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.