US State Department Tells Congress It Is Bad Time to Abandon Ukraine

, 9 November 2023, 11:36

James O'Brien, US Assistant Secretary of State, said that it is in the interests of the United States to help Ukraine, and stopping its support now would be an unfortunate decision.

As reported by Voice Of America, O'Brien, answering the question of senators in Congress about why the United States should provide financial support to Ukraine, said it was necessary to maintain unity among allies in the US and Europe to effectively resist China, as Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to destroy the Western unity among the allies.

"Now is a bad time to abandon Ukraine. Because Ukraine is winning and has regained half of the territory that Putin seized after February 2022, opened up the grain routes of the Black Sea, which Putin tried to close in July," O'Brien said.

The representative of the State Department pointed out that Kyiv managed to achieve this thanks to the creativity of Ukrainians, a whole set of "interesting solutions", such as drones and other technologies, which, he added, contributes to American security as Ukraine approaches NATO.

The official stressed that if the United States competed with China over time, it should be kept in mind that the battle for Ukraine allowed Washington to restore its industrial base.

"We create new energy technologies and implement them worldwide, build new defence technologies, and work in the field of IT. All this is included in the additional funding package, and it will make us more able to protect Taiwan...", O'Brien explained.

The representative of the State Department also noted he was always taught that if you leave work unfinished, you will have to go back and do it again; at the same time, Ukrainians are ready to do this work because it's about their territory.

"If we refuse to help them now, then later, this work will have to be done by someone else, and probably it will be us. Therefore, I would rather stand up to Russia and its destabilising positions right now," O'Brien concluded.

On the eve of the White House, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that the US used almost all the funds approved by Congress to help Ukraine.

As is known, US President Joe Biden is trying to convince the US Congress to support assistance to both Ukraine and Israel and approve a new US$106 billion aid package, which includes more than US$61 billion in funding to help Ukraine.

But Michael Johnson, the new speaker of the US House of Representatives, insists that aid packages for Ukraine and Israel are considered by Congress separately, and the Ukrainian package is considered together with allocations for border security with Mexico.