Fri 06 October 2023:
The Biden administration is expected to announce a new weapons package for Ukraine next week as the Pentagon continues to use up funds discovered due to a multibillion-dollar accounting error, according to US officials.
The funds have allowed Washington to send Kyiv military support despite the exclusion of new Ukraine aid from a stopgap spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last weekend to prevent a government shutdown.
The latest weapons package is expected to have a value of around $200m. The Pentagon still has about $5.4bn in the recently discovered funds.
While a bipartisan majority of Congress supports more aid, a hardline flank of Republicans have wielded outsized influence on the issue. The removal of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and the subsequent race to replace him, has further thrown more US aid into question.
Putin claims Ukraine would last ‘a week’ if Western military support stops
The Russia-Ukraine war is now in its 590th day after Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
On Thursday, Russia’s president claimed that Ukraine could not survive for more than “a week” without Western military and financial aid.
The claim was made on the same day as a European Union official warned that the bloc could not replace the funding gap if support for Kyiv from the US dried up.
Putin made his remarks on Western funding for Ukraine as fears mount that political turmoil in Washington could jeopardise crucial military and humanitarian aid that Kyiv requires to battle Russia’s invasion. US President Joe Biden admitted this week that he “does worry” US support for Ukraine might get derailed.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
______________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
