White House warns US Congress, Putin may win war if funding to Ukraine is stopped

The White House issued a dire warning that US aid to Ukraine would end by the end of the year. Along with this it also said that if the US Congress fails to agree on new funding then Russian President Vladimir Putin can win the war.

Shalanda Young, budget director of US President Joe Biden, said in a letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that if military aid was stopped, it would weaken Kiev's fight against Russian aggression.

In October, Biden had asked the US Congress for a $106 billion national security package for Ukraine. Which also included demands for military aid for Ukraine, as well as military aid for Israel's war against Hamas. But funding is stuck in division on Capitol Hill.

John Kirby was asked whether US President Joe Biden would give in to demands by Republicans, who are insisting that a $106 billion ‘national security supplemental request’ for Ukraine and Israel be conditional on a security spending boost for the US-Mexico border.

Kirby declined to answer the question, saying he “won't get ahead of the president's decision-making.” Instead, he again stressed the importance of the stalled aid package.

“I’ll tell you in that supplemental request that we put forward... yep, there's money for Ukraine which we desperately need. There's money for Israel. There’s also money for border security,” he explained.

“If lawmakers are serious about immigration reform, they ought to take that proposal up by the president. They also ought to pass our supplemental request, all four of the major buckets in there, which also includes money for the Indo-Pacific, is important to our national security,” he said.

Kirby urged Congress to act “immediately” to resolve the military aid deadlock.

The administration has been struggling to push through the $106 billion aid package since early October, largely due to opposition from Republican hardliners, who are resisting further funding for Kiev.

The Biden administration has provided Ukraine with more than $76 billion in military and other assistance since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. However, the flow of money has recently dried up. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who visited Kiev last month, could only announce a new arms and ammunition package worth $100 million.