Ukraine's Ambassador to US Shares Details of Package for Ukraine Provided in Senate's Bill of Additional Government Funding
More than US$6 billion have been pledged to support Ukraine, most of which is for military support, in the bill on additional funding for the US government.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, commented on Facebook on the bill on the short-term budget resolution, which is being debated by the Senate and which is designed to prevent a shutdown of the US federal government amid disputes over budget legislation in Congress. This bill is supposed to fund the work of the US government for the next 45 days, during which they hope to reach a compromise on the budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
"The bill introduced on continuous appropriations for 2024 provides for the allocation of US$6.152 billion for additional assistance to Ukraine, in particular: US$4.499 billion for defence expenditure, US$1.650 billion for economic support, including direct budgetary support," the ambassador said.
Oksana Markarova emphasised that so far this is only a draft and active discussions will continue in the Congress in the following days.
The ambassador also explained the difference between the previously mentioned request of the White House to Congress for an additional 24 billion dollars to support Ukraine and the amount in this draft.
"The US$24 billion for Ukraine is the US administration’s proposal for the quarter (the first of fiscal year of 2024, i.e. the last calendar quarter of 2023). Now a resolution for 45 days is being considered because there is no agreement on the US budget for the quarter and for the year. Accordingly, the Senate has proposed a stopgap 45-day resolution to avoid a stoppage of federal government funding," Markarova elaborated.
Prior to that, the Senate debated whether to include funds for Ukraine in the draft, so that the Republicans in the House of Representatives, sceptical of supporting Ukraine, would not reject it for this reason, while there was very little time to pass the law and avoid a government shutdown.
The US State Department reiterated that Washington is capable of continuing to provide military and security assistance to Kyiv even in the event of a temporary shutdown of the government.