US President Biden Considers Tapping US Military to Fund Ukraine

Bloomberg has reported on Wednesday that President Biden is considering tapping the US Army budget to supply Ukraine with much-needed military aid. The White House is allegedly seeking approximately $200 million in Pentagon reserves, which is a small fraction of the $61 billion in Ukraine help that President Biden has requested from Congress.

Bloomberg reported that the President president will once again encourage lawmakers to approve extra money for Kiev at his State of the Union address on Thursday. The Senate approved the aid package last month, but it is now delayed in the House owing to political infighting.

So far, House Republicans have refused to support Biden’s plan, intending to put pressure on the president to take harder measures to cope with the flow of illegal migrants crossing the border with Mexico.

The stalemate in Congress comes at a critical time for Ukraine, whose military have had to retreat from numerous key sites in the Donbass in recent weeks. President Vladimir Zelensky and other Kiev officials have blamed ammunition and equipment shortages as causes for war setbacks.

Meanwhile, Kiev will try to “seize the initiative” on the battlefield later this year, Lieutenant General Aleksandr Pavlyuk stated.

Ukraine aims to rebuild its troops and launch a new counteroffensive this year, according to the ground forces commander.

Lieutenant General Aleksandr Pavlyuk told ICTV on Wednesday that the most immediate task is to halt Russian advances and reorganize Ukrainian units so that fatigued forces can be withdrawn from the front lines and restocked. It would then empower Kiev to “create a strike group and carry out counter-strike actions.”

“I believe we will stabilize the situation soon,” Pavlyuk said, adding that the command is doing “everything possible to prepare the troops for more active actions and to seize the initiative.”

The Ukrainian army is losing ground in the Donbass, where Russian forces captured the heavily fortified city of Avdeevka last month. The defeat came amid Kiev’s mounting ammunition scarcity and delays in the delivery of Western military help.

Ukraine’s final major counteroffensive failed, resulting in massive fatalities and the destruction of several Western-supplied tanks and other weapons.

The much-anticipated operation began in June 2023 and came to a standstill in the fall of the same year, as Ukrainian armored units failed to penetrate heavy minefields and were finally unable to break past Russian fortifications.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims that more than 166,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded during last year’s counteroffensive.

Months of infighting in the US Congress have crippled Ukraine’s war effort, with Republican legislators opposing $61 billion in additional military funding.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron indicated on Thursday that France would consider any option to support Ukraine two years after Russia’s invasion, according to leaders of several major French political groups.

Following the two-and-a-half-hour discussion, party leaders expressed alarm over Macron’s talks, with some accusing him of leveraging the disagreement to enhance his coalition’s popularity ahead of important European elections this summer.

Last week, the president startled many in Europe by refusing to rule out the deployment of Western ground soldiers to Ukraine, highlighting Russia’s hardened stance.

Earlier this week, Macron encouraged Ukraine’s friends not to be “cowards” in helping the ex-Soviet country repel the Russian incursion.

Some party officials said on Thursday that Macron advocated a “no limits” strategy to countering Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Green party leader Marine Tondelier, Macron said Putin “obviously has no limits.”

She added it was “extremely worrying” to witness Macron address the group, “We must show we have no limits.”

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN), said he pleaded with Macron “not to go to war with Russia.”

According to DW, the president’s thinking includes “no limits and no red lines”.

Far-left heavyweight Manuel Bompard continued, “I arrived worried and left even more worried.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Macron “continues to raise the level of France’s direct involvement” in the Ukraine conflict.

France’s parliament will vote on its Ukraine plan, which includes a bilateral security contract negotiated with Kyiv last month.

Debates and non-binding votes will take place in the National Assembly lower house next Tuesday and in the Senate upper chamber on Wednesday.

Ukraine Outgunned, Army Running Out of Soldiers and Ammunition

Ukraine Outgunned, Army Running Out of Soldiers and Ammunition