US stops supplying weapons to Ukraine

The United States has halted the transfer of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine due to a lack of budgetary funding for such programs, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.

“We have issued the last aid package under the PDA that we have funding to support,” a White House official said in response to a question about Washington’s military aid to Kiev, Russian news agency TASS reported on January 12.

The PDA, or Presidential Withdrawal Authority, allows the Biden administration to transfer weapons from the US stockpile without congressional approval.

The last US PDA aid package for Ukraine, announced on December 27 last year, was worth $250 million. It included anti-aircraft ammunition, additional ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, and anti-armor ammunition.

The White House has repeatedly warned that US aid to Ukraine will run out by the end of 2023, and that the aid can only continue to flow if both houses of Congress give the green light to the additional spending that Mr. Biden proposed last October.

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a 9P132 Grad-P (Partizan) rocket launcher on the front line in Zaporizhzhia, November 7, 2023. Photo: ABS-CBN News

“That’s why it’s so important that Congress passes the national security supplemental request and we get more funding,” Kirby said. “The support that we’ve been providing has now been stopped.”

The White House official said the need for more US weapons in Ukraine is becoming extremely urgent, “especially during these winter months.”

The fate of an additional $106 billion aid package that President Biden has proposed to Congress, which includes $60 billion in aid to Kiev, remains unclear. Republicans have insisted that improved border security must be part of any aid deal for Ukraine.

The latest developments in the United States have further dimmed the prospects for aid to Kiev. The Pentagon’s inspector general, in a report released on January 11, questioned the Department of Defense ’s accountability in tracking much of the sensitive military equipment that has been supplied to Ukraine, including Javelin and Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, night vision goggles, suicide drones and other sensitive equipment worth more than $1 billion.

The watchdog report, which raised questions about America's ability to ensure that weapons delivered to the front lines were not stolen, was apparently released at a very inopportune time.

Senior Pentagon and State Department officials have disputed the report, saying in official responses that while real-time tracking of military aid is impossible in wartime, they have devised alternative methods for Ukrainians to control equipment and weapons that have yielded satisfactory results.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Estonia early on January 11, 2024 as part of a tour of the Baltic states. Anhr: Kyiv Independent

Amid uncertainty over aid from key Western allies, including the US and EU, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the Baltic states.

During his trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, some of Kiev’s staunchest supporters in the EU and NATO military alliance, Mr. Zelensky hopes to push back fatigue among Ukraine’s Western allies, secure more financial and military aid, and discuss Kiev’s bid to join NATO and the EU.

President Zelensky told the media in Tallinn, Estonia, on January 11 that Ukraine would have a hard time surviving unless it received a delayed financial aid package from the EU worth 50 billion euros, which Hungary blocked in December last year.

“This support is very important for us,” Mr. Zelensky said .

Minh Duc (According to TASS, Washington Post, Reuters)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/my-ngung-cung-cap-vu-khi-cho-ukraine-a645042.html