US military aid to Ukraine may dry up by July

The United States has already sent around $36 billion worth of military assistance to Ukraine amid Russia’s repeated warnings that doing so will prolong the conflict in Ukraine.

Washington’s funding for its security aid to Kiev could dry up by midsummer, and “reupping it won’t be easy,” a US media outlet has cited unnamed sources as saying.

The sources claimed that the $48bn Ukraine aid package, including about "$36bn for the Pentagon to craft a wide range of military aid to Kiev [...] has about $6bn left."

According to the outlet, one insider estimated that, "based on the rate of announcements, the money to draw down existing US stockpiles will expire in July. That would mean the flow of equipment could be disrupted if Kiev has to wait an extended period for a new tranche of funding."

The source added that the White House is already discussing a new package, which comes amid the US internal financial crisis, as Democrats and Republican remain at odds over the country’s debt ceiling, a standoff that may result in a default on America’s debt.

In addition, "Congress will spend the next several months debating the [US] fiscal 2024 defense budget, a wrinkle that could complicate Ukraine funding," the insiders argued.

The claims follow the US announcing a new $1.2 billion long-term military aid package to Ukraine earlier this month, which includes the Hawk air defense systems, as well as ammunition for air defense and anti-drone warfare.

All this military hardware will be paid for under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Biden administration to purchase arms from industry rather than taking them from US stocks.

The development was preceded by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warning last month that "stopping arms deliveries [to Kiev] will mean the end of Ukraine, and immediately."

The US and its allies ramped up their military supplies to Kiev shortly after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned countries sending weapons to Ukraine that it sees these military shipments as legitimate targets. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, stressed NATO allies arming and training Ukrainians is tantamount to a direct involvement in the conflict.