President Joe Biden has called on Congress to provide a $24 billion funding boost for Ukraine, signaling his latest push to help Kyiv's fight against Russian aggression.
Biden, who is set to leave office in less than two months, has pushed to aid Ukraine as much as possible during his final weeks in the White House. His successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has criticized American aid for Kyiv and could change Washington's policy toward Ukraine and Russia when he returns to the Oval Office on January 20.
On Tuesday, citing a document it had obtained, Politico Pro reported that about $16 billion of the $24 billion sum would restock U.S. arsenals, while $8 billion would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a Pentagon-led program that supplies arms to Ukraine through contracts with U.S. defense companies.
The outlet said two congressional sources confirmed the information and that Congress received the request on November 25. Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment about the report, which was widely picked up by Ukrainian and U.S. media.
Whether the funding request will be successful remains uncertain. Earlier this year, the Republican-led House of Representatives stalled a $61 billion assistance bill for months before it was finally approved in April.
The White House has suggested that Congress could include the aid in its effort to avert a government shutdown next month, according to the document Politico Pro obtained, which aligns with previous statements from the Biden administration that it would seek Congress' approval for additional aid for Ukraine in 2025.
On November 10, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News that in his remaining days as president, Biden would "make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine."
The Biden administration has informed Congress it would forgive $4.65 billion worth of Ukrainian debt. The president has also approved the delivery of antipersonnel mines to Ukraine and given Kyiv permission to use American-supplied ATACMS to strike at targets in Russian territory.
Following the report of Biden's latest push for Ukrainian aid, Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and Trump ally, said on X, formerly Twitter, that American lawmakers must not allow Biden "to further sabotage President Trump's peace negotiations on the way out the door. Any Biden funding demands should be DOA."
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered the launch of an Oreshnik medium-range missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and formalized changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for atomic weapon use.
The moves have raised tensions ahead of the upcoming administration change in the U.S. Trump has said he can end the war in Ukraine quickly, and speculation abounds over what form a deal will take.
Mark Episkopos, a research fellow in the Quincy Institute's Eurasia Program, told Newsweek last week that Biden granting Ukraine permission to use ATACMS in Russia gives Trump some leverage, although it may complicate talks.
"It would be difficult for the Trump administration to then rein the Ukrainians in and withdraw the green light because this would obviously be perceived very poorly by Kyiv," he said, adding, "The Trump administration would have preferred Biden not to give the Ukrainians this green light because it complicates upcoming negotiations more than it helps."
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