As the Money Dries Up, Lawmakers Eye Even More Aid for Ukraine
Pro-Ukraine aid lawmakers have learned their lesson. As the allotment for new weapons in the $61 billion Ukraine aid package is set to drain out by January, machinations are in play to get more to Kyiv without the kind of political debate that overtook Congress this year.
One might be wondering how Ukraine blew through almost $61 billion from April. But the whole idea that Washington was giving the Zelensky government that much was wrong to begin with.
According to Mark Cancian, probably the most astute chronicler of current arms spending by the federal government today, most of the $61 billion—passed by Congress in April after months of wrangling and opposition by Republicans—is being spent in the United States, not Ukraine.
In his May paper with co-writer Chris H. Park for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Cancian wrote:
Despite images of “pallets of cash” being sent to Ukraine, about 72 percent of this money overall and 86 percent of the military aid will be spent in the United States. The reason for this high percentage is that weapons going to Ukraine are produced in U.S. factories, payments to U.S. service members are mostly spent in the United States, and even some piece of the humanitarian aid is spent in the United States. The major element of funding going to Ukraine is the economic support to the Ukrainian government, which the World Bank handles.