Russia could achieve an unearned victory in Ukraine if Congress fails to authorize the provision of additional military aid for the war-torn country, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“What we do, what we fail to do, in this moment will have profound consequences for decades to come,” Blinken told reporters during a year-end press conference at the State Department. “If we come up short, it won’t be our adversaries and competitors who stopped us. It will be ourselves.”
SPIDERHACK: WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE SONY INSOMNIAC LEAK
President Joe Biden and lawmakers in both parties coordinated to provide about $46 billion worth of military equipment and logistical support to Ukraine, according to Council on Foreign Relations calculations. That equipment, in combination with another $29 billion worth of European armaments, enabled Ukrainian forces to repel Russia’s initial assault and launch a counteroffensive in 2021 that liberated a key pair of cities in eastern Ukraine. Yet the war settled into an apparent “stalemate” over the following year, culminating in a fall counteroffensive that stalled out in recent months — just as a critical mass of U.S. lawmakers began to resist the authorization of additional aid.
“We are nearly out of money that we need, and we’re nearly out of time,” Blinken said Wednesday. “We have made a real investment in Ukraine’s future, in its freedom. And it makes no sense to me that we would now renege on that investment, having already done so much and having already put Ukraine in a position where it can not only survive but actually thrive going forward.”
A bipartisan majority of lawmakers favor the continuance of aid to Ukraine, as U.S. officials and observers generally agree, but the legislation to authorize that package has been stymied by a linked border security dispute between Biden and congressional Republicans. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington to make a direct appeal for more assistance, but his warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “dreams come true” when internal U.S. disputes impede support for Ukraine didn’t break the logjam.
“I am sure that the U.S. won’t let us down and will fully live up to what we’ve agreed on,” Zelensky said Tuesday during his own year-end press conference. “We are expecting this aid, and they know the details: what we need it for, what impact it will have, and what effect the postponing of some deadlines could have.”
Ukraine has received “more than $110 billion” of aid from other countries, according to Blinken, in comparison to $70 billion from the United States. Much of the $61 billion that Biden wants Congress to authorize in the next legislative bill would be spent inside the U.S., as policymakers in both parties have acknowledged.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“That’s the money that we’re using to buy newer, more modern, better weapons to put into our stocks to replace the weapons we’re pulling to give to Ukraine,” a Republican aide with the House Foreign Affairs Committee told the Washington Examiner. “And that’s the money that we give to industry to have them build new weapons as well directly for Ukraine.”
Blinken leaned into that argument on Wednesday. “Virtually all of the security assistance that we’ve provided Ukraine and the security assistance … gets invested right here in the United States,” he said. “That’s where it’s spent. And that not only helps procure the weapons that Ukraine needs. It provides good jobs here in the United States. It builds our own defense industrial base. So, in many ways, this is a win-win for us, and it’s why I would hope Congress acts and acts quickly.”
