US Has No Money for New Aid Packages for Ukraine – White House

The US has no money for further military aid for Ukraine until the adoption of a new package by the US Congress, the White House has said.

"We have now given Ukraine the last security assistance package that we have funds to support right be- — right before New Year’s, right after Christmas. And we’ve got to get support from Congress so we can continue to do that," John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, said at a briefing.

He explained that US President Joe Biden had signed out the last security assistance package for which there were replenishment authority funds.. The Congress needs the supplemental funds passed so that the US can provide additional security assistance to Ukraine.

Kirby noted that in the absence of additional funding, there is no other "magical pot to dip into" to find support for Ukraine.

The US Congress failed to approve supplementary funding for Ukraine by the end of 2023, which is why the White House cannot announce further military aid packages.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden, commenting on the large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine on the night of 29-30 December, stressed that Congress needs to approve additional aid for Ukraine as soon as possible.

On 27 December the US announced a $250 million military package for Ukraine, the last in 2023.

In October 2023,  Biden asked Congress to approve supplementary funding, specifically over $60 billion for Ukraine. But this has been stuck in the Senate due to disagreements between Republicans and Democrats concerning the security of the US-Mexican border.