The Biden administration is working urgently to send over $6 billion of its remaining security assistance to Ukraine before Inauguration Day, aiming to reinforce Ukraine's defenses amid concerns that aid could be halted once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
According to a report by Politico, two anonymous administration officials confirmed that speeding up aid delivery is the White House's only option to ensure continued support for Ukraine. However, logistical challenges mean that much of the equipment and munitions will take months to reach Ukraine after being announced. This delay may allow a future Trump administration to cancel shipments before they are fully sent out.
A significant barrier to faster delivery, Politico reported, is that the US can only send equipment currently in its stockpiles. Although funds are allocated to reimburse the Pentagon, aid deployment depends on the speed of production for new artillery and weaponry.
“We have been sending whatever industry can produce each month, but the problem is you can only send these things as they are produced,” explained Mark Cancian, a former Department of Defense budget official. “The administration could dip into the stockpiles and send equipment more quickly, but it’s unclear the Pentagon would want to do that since it would affect its own readiness.”
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz stated that the Pentagon remains “on track to continue to provide the authorized assistance to support Ukraine.”
The remaining funds are part of a $61 billion Ukraine aid package approved in April. This includes $4.3 billion for sending existing equipment from US stockpiles and $2.1 billion for contracting additional weaponry from US defense companies.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington in September, President Biden ordered the Pentagon to allocate the remaining aid that had been appropriated by Congress. Per Politico, that included "plans to parcel out the remaining Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, money that the government can use to put weapons in production for Ukraine instead of buying them off the shelf, by the end of 2024."
