Once again, Volodymyr Zelensky reminds us that money is the sinews of war. The Ukrainian president warned on Sunday that a drop in US support for kyiv in the face of the Russian army would be a “bad signal”, while a new package of American aid is currently blocked in Congress.
“US passivity or lack of support would send the wrong signal. “It wouldn’t be fair to anyone,” he said in an interview broadcast on Sunday by German public television channel ZDF. “The United States is our number one partner,” he also stressed.
A $61 billion negotiation
After delivering tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Kiev since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden’s administration exhausted its funds at the end of 2023. The president therefore asked Congress to approve some 61 billion additional dollars, but negotiations with the Republicans, which also concern immigration, are bogged down.
The last delivery of American military aid to Ukraine was announced on December 27, and the White House has said repeatedly that without a budget extension, there would be no more.
Support from Olaf Scholz
Faced with this blockage, Volodymyr Zelensky called on Germany to use its economic weight to mobilize its European partners in order to fill the gap. “Many countries have important economic relations with Germany and their economies depend on Germany’s decisions because it has a strong economy,” he said. According to him, “Germany can succeed in consolidating (support) from the EU”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz already called on his European partners on Wednesday to intensify their commitments in terms of armaments. “Europe must do more to support Ukraine in the defense of its own country,” he told the weekly Die Zeitbelieving that the contributions planned by European nations for 2024 so far were “not high enough”.
Concerning the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to be optimistic on Sunday regarding the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump, considered less favorable to supporting Kiev, in the next American presidential election. “I don’t think all U.S. policy depends on one person,” he said, believing that “the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans support Ukraine.”