NEW YORK, October 31. /TASS/. About half of all the money that Washington allocates in aid to Kiev is being spent to restore the US military industry and replenish US stockpiles, while the Pentagon ships obsolete equipment to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported citing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Speaking in an interview, the senator expressed hope that new House Speaker Mike Johnson would endorse further aid to Kiev.
"I’m hopeful that he will decide that it was important to support Ukraine, as well," McConnell said, adding that he will discuss this issue with Johnson before the end of this week.
The Senator favors passing a single aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and also including funds to protect US borders in the bill.
"I think it’s all connected," he said. "And if we don’t stand up to these challenges now, they will cost us a lot more in the future."
However, he noted that he would like the issue of US border security to be prioritized in the US’ foreign policy agenda.
When asked if the joint aid package will be adopted, McConnell did not provide a definitive answer.
"Well, there’s no question that there are members of my party, probably more of them in the House, who have been unenthusiastic, shall I say, about helping Ukraine," McConnell said. "But it’s bigger than just terrorist attacks on Israel. We’ve got big power competition now with the Chinese and the Russians."
In her commentary to the WSJ, Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova called the ATACMS missiles that were previously shipped to Ukraine a "game-changing" weapon.
"We definitely need more of this equipment, for long range," she said, underscoring that Ukraine needs "more air defense, more artillery," to "end the war" sooner.
On August 10, the US Administration, led by Democrat President Joe Biden, requested $13 billion in emergency military aid to Kiev from Congress. An additional $8.5 billion in economic and security assistance was requested for Kiev and several other countries. However, a number of opposition Republican lawmakers refuse to publicly endorse any new initiatives that include further allocating major financial aid to Kiev. Amid the abrupt escalation of the Middle East conflict, some Republicans stated that it is necessary to reorient the military aid for Ukraine to Israel.