'Budget war' is America's business, no matter what, Ukraine still has a part to play, Kiev does not believe it will be abandoned

Does Kiev have reason to believe that the current bipartisan "budget war" in the US Congress will not affect Washington's continued assistance to Ukraine in its military conflict with Russia?

Ukrainian President Zelensky and his wife pose for a photo with US President Joe Biden and his wife at the White House on September 21. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/UPI)

“The temporary US budget situation will not prevent the flow of previously agreed aid to Ukraine and Kiev is working with its US partners on new aid funds,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote in a recent Facebook post.

Specifically, this amount is about 1.6 billion USD for the defense industry, 1.23 billion USD in direct budget support, as well as funds for humanitarian and energy projects.

The Kiev representative added that the US government shutdown could have a negative impact on the implementation of current programs in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities are currently working with their US counterparts to ensure that a new US budget measure is adopted in the next 45 days, including new funds to help Ukraine.

“Let us not forget that, despite the ongoing internal political discussions related to the US political process in the US, support for Ukraine remains strong both within the US administration, as well as in both parties and both houses of Congress, and most importantly, among the American people,” Nikolenko believes.

Meanwhile, while President Joe Biden praised the deal reached by US lawmakers, he also acknowledged the lack of new funding for Ukraine, pledging that Washington “will not abandon” Kiev. The bipartisan leadership in the US Senate also promised to vote on additional aid to Ukraine.

For some in Kiev, however, the US may have avoided a government shutdown, but the lack of additional funding for Ukraine in the spending bill is worrying.

“These are America’s internal games,” Ukrainian serviceman Volodymyr Kostiak told CNN . “And Ukraine is a hostage to this internal war. But America’s strategic interests are so great that Ukraine is part of them.”

Therefore, this soldier still believes that internal political struggles cannot greatly affect the support for Ukraine. There will be some problems but not significant.

According to Mr. Kostiak, “the fight for funding for Ukraine is due to the political realities of the 2024 US presidential election, but the possibility that Washington will stop funding Ukraine is very small.” This military man believes that the US budget has been suspended many times in history but has never led to any serious consequences. Therefore, he does not see this as a big problem for Ukraine.

Some others also believe that the budget is currently an internal US matter, but Washington “cannot” withdraw aid completely, anyway, sooner or later there will be aid for Ukraine.

Others in the Ukrainian capital, however, are less confident — especially as US support wanes after nearly 20 months of military conflict.

A CNN poll in August found that most Americans oppose Congress authorizing additional funding to assist Ukraine in its conflict, while the public is nearly split on whether Washington has done enough.

The situation shows that there has been a change in public opinion. In a similar poll conducted in the early days of the conflict (February 2022), 62% of those surveyed said that the US should have done more for Ukraine.

The partisan divide has also widened since that poll, with most Democrats and Republicans now on opposite sides of questions about the US role in Ukraine.

However, speaking alongside European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kiev earlier this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he believed the cutoff of new aid to Ukraine from the bill passed by the US Congress over the weekend was just an "incident" and not a "systemic" change in the US approach to Kiev.

But Ukraine’s National Security Adviser Oleksiy Danilov expressed concern that aid to his country was excluded from the US Congress’ spending bill, commenting, “If America were the bastion of democracy in the world, the answer would be clear to everyone.”

Last month, during Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to the United States to shore up aid, Kiev warned that it desperately needed support from other countries because it could not do it alone. A reduction in Washington’s support could have dire consequences for any effort to combat the conflict with Russia.

The United States has been Ukraine's strongest supporter and has also led allies in supporting Kiev since the conflict with Russia broke out in February 2022.

The US Congress has so far approved $110 billion in aid to Ukraine, including $49.6 billion in military aid, $28.5 billion in economic aid, $13.2 billion in humanitarian assistance, and $18.4 billion to strengthen the US defense industry's capacity to maintain arms supplies to Ukraine.

So far, no matter what happens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky still believes in Mr. Biden's commitment during his visit to the US that Washington will maintain support for Kiev despite opposition from Republican lawmakers.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cuoc-chien-ngan-sach-la-viec-cua-my-co-the-nao-van-co-phan-ukraine-kiev-khong-tin-se-bi-bo-roi-244844.html