Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak to Congress and President Joe Biden on Wednesday and claim the $45 billion worth of aid designated for Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill is not enough support.
Congress is weighing whether to pass the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that designates $45 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine. The $45 billion is in addition to the $66 billion lawmakers have already approved of taxpayers’ money for Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Zelensky released a video revealing he will tell Biden and Congress $45 billion is still not enough support.
“We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army. Our people are braver and need more powerful weapons,” he said about the Ukrainian war. “We will pass it on from the boys to the Congress, to the president of the United States. We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough. It is a hint — it is not enough.”
Zelensky’s claim that $45 billion is not enough aid – on top of the already approved $66 billion – comes as the omnibus bill is expected to approve a military budget of about $858 billion, $45 billion more than Biden had requested from taxpayers.
FILE – Patriot missiles are seen at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, March 25, 2022, in Jasionka, Poland. The U.S. will send $1.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine in a massive package that will for the first time include a Patriot missile battery and precision guided bombs for their fighter jets, U.S. officials said Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, as the Biden administration prepares to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Critics of Ukrainian aid say much of the funds have ended up in the hands of American defense contractors. Others have demanded the previous sums of money approved by Congress should be audited before aid more is given. Still others are concerned the sheer amount of money spent defending Ukraine’s borders is too much.
American taxpayers have given more aid to Ukraine than is sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined. In just a few short months since the Ukrainian war, the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine also surpassed three of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in history.
The New York Times reported Sunday the “[m]ilitary spending next year is on track to reach its highest level in inflation-adjusted terms since the peaks in the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between 2008 and 2011, and the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II — a level that is more than the budgets for the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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