US Department of Defense wants to "bypass" Congress to bypass law to support Ukraine

The Pentagon plans to "bypass" the US Congress to send military aid to Ukraine through the purchase of military equipment in an approved package.

The US Department of Defense is looking for ways to "circumvent the law" to continue supporting Ukraine. (Source: dhr.virginia.gov)

CNN quoted a source from the US Department of Defense on February 28 revealing that the Pentagon planned to "bypass" the US Congress to send military aid to Ukraine through the purchase of military equipment using the remaining $4 billion allocated by President Joe Biden for this purpose.

The plan has not yet been approved, but is being considered even without a guarantee that Congress will ultimately approve a new aid package for Ukraine, according to a Pentagon source. In addition, amid the difficult situation on the battlefield, the Pentagon is discussing another potential “Plan B.”

CNN noted that the remaining $4 billion from President Biden's funding cannot be allocated to new contracts without the approval of the US Congress, but the Pentagon has the right to use US military reserves to send military equipment to Ukraine.

Previously, the Pentagon had been reluctant to take such a step without assurances that lawmakers would allocate additional funding. The US Department of Defense explained this stance as stemming from the risk to the country's defense capabilities.

The Senate has passed a $95 billion aid package, including $60 billion for Kiev. However, Republicans in the House of Representatives have said they will not support the new aid package for Kiev.

The United States leads the way in terms of the level of assistance provided by Western countries to Ukraine. According to calculations by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Germany), from January 2022 to the end of September 2023, Washington allocated about 75.4 billion USD (0.33% of GDP) to Kiev, of which 45.7 billion USD was military assistance, 25.8 billion USD was financial assistance, and 3.8 billion USD was humanitarian assistance.

In total, since February 24, 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the US Congress has approved four military aid packages for Ukraine with a total value of more than 113 billion USD.

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