Washington soon “running out of money” to help kyiv – L’Express

This Monday, December 4, Ukraine enters its 649 days of war since the Russian invasion of February 2022. The day was marked by the alarm signal triggered by the White House on American military aid to Ukraine, Russian drones shot down by Kiev during the night and the first step towards unblocking the Polish-Ukrainian border.

⇒ The United States warns Ukraine that it is “out of money and soon out of time”

⇒ Ukraine says it shot down 18 Russian drones and a missile overnight

⇒ A first step towards unblocking the Polish-Ukrainian border

“We are running out of money and soon to run out of time.” The White House sounded the alarm this Monday over American military aid to Ukraine, threatened if Congress does not vote on new funding before the end of the year.

“I want to be clear: If Congress does not act, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to deliver more weapons and equipment to Ukraine and to supply material from American military stocks”, writes White House Budget Director Shalanda Young, in a letter addressed to the head of the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority. “There is no magic funding available to address the emergency. We are running out of money and soon to run out of time,” she warns.

At stake: an exceptional envelope of more than 100 billion dollars requested by Democratic President Joe Biden on October 20 from Congress to respond to the major emergencies of the moment, namely helping Israel and Ukraine, standing up to China and responding to arrivals of migrants at the southern border.

“Cutting off the arrival of American weapons and equipment would destroy Ukraine’s war effort,” assures the Budget Director in this urgent letter. “This would endanger the advances made by Ukraine and increase the probability of Russian victories,” adds Shalanda Young. “Our deliveries of military aid have already decreased,” she notes. “This is not a problem for next year. Now is the time to help democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression,” concludes Shalanda Young.

The United States, the main supplier of military aid to Ukraine, has been in the greatest budgetary limbo for months, due to endless parliamentary turbulence. The Congress of the world’s leading power – made up of the Senate with a Democratic majority and the House of Representatives with a Republican majority – has still not voted on a final budget for the fiscal year which began on October 1. The federal government is currently functioning thanks to an emergency extension which will expire in mid-January.

Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses claimed to have shot down a missile and 18 of the 23 drones launched overnight from Sunday to Monday by Russia. “18 attack drones and one Kh-59 missile were shot down,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in its morning statement. The southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv were targeted, as well as Ivanov-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky and Lviv (west), according to the army. According to the Ukrainian army, drones managed to strike the districts of Kherson and Beryslav (south), on the banks of the Dnieper River, damaging a cultural center and a DIY store.

Russia launches drone and missile attacks against Ukraine almost every night. kyiv accuses the Kremlin of seeking to terrorize the civilian population and destroy its energy infrastructure in order, like last winter, to plunge the population into darkness and cold.

The Russian army has also returned to the attack in eastern Ukraine since October, after the great summer counter-offensive by the Ukrainians failed to liberate the territories occupied by the Russians.

The first trucks, without loading, crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border this Monday morning, Ukrainian border guards announced. The Ougryniv-Dolhobyczow crossing point was opened for heavy goods vehicles at 1 a.m. local time, and thirty empty trucks were able to enter Poland from Ukraine, Ukrainian border guards said in the morning.

This is a first step towards de-escalation after a month of blocking of the border by Polish truckers. Polish transport companies blocked at the beginning of November first three, then four border crossings intended for the passage of heavy goods vehicles between Ukraine and Poland to protest against Ukrainian truck drivers whose competition they consider “unfair”.

The blockage has created endless queues at the border and represents a major economic problem for kyiv, which relies heavily on the route for its exports and imports of goods. After less than three weeks of blockage, Ukrainian employers, which represent 8,000 companies, already estimated economic losses at “more than 400 million euros”.

kyiv announced on Sunday that it had reached an initial agreement with Warsaw to open the Ougryniv crossing point, which was not until now used for the passage of heavy trucks. This decision only concerns empty vehicles coming from Ukraine to Poland. Previously, at least two rounds of talks between kyiv, Warsaw and Polish truckers failed.