President Joe Biden is sending a new tranche of emergency security aid for Ukraine on Tuesday, worth roughly $300 million, weeks after the White House indicated the administration had exhausted existing avenues to arm Ukraine’s forces.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke about the funding during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. He claimed that the surplus stemmed from “unanticipated cost savings in contracts” the Department of Defense negotiated in 2023 to replenish U.S. stockpiles after sending equipment to Ukraine.
“We budgeted the full amount of appropriated funds for those contracts,” Sullivan said. “It turns out we negotiated well. Those contracts came in under budget, so we have a modest amount of funding available. To put a fine point on it, we’re able to use these cost savings to make this modest amount of new security assistance available right now without impacting U.S. military readiness.”
Sullivan reiterated that Congress should approve Biden’s supplemental funding request for additional security funds for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, the southern border, and humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.
“This ammunition will keep Ukraine’s guns firing for a period, but only a short period,” Sullivan said. “It is nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs, and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the weeks to come. It goes without saying this package does not displace and should not delay the critical need to pass the bipartisan national security” bill.
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On Monday, Biden submitted his fiscal 2025 budget request, which included a version of the bipartisan Ukraine-border bill that passed the Senate last month, to Congress.
Tuesday’s briefing can be seen in full below.