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11 Dec 2024, 09:34

Kiev to last only six months if US cuts aid under Trump — finance minister

According to Sergey Marchenko, Kiev can "allocate sufficient budgetary resources to afford the necessary ammunition and military equipment in 2025"

MADRID, December 11. /TASS/. Ukraine will be able to continue its conflict with Russia only for the first six months of 2025 in case the US cuts its aid to the country after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko said.

"We have enough money, weapons, projectiles and artillery shells to outlast at least the first half of 2025," he told Spain's El Pais newspaper.

According to the minister, Kiev can "allocate sufficient budgetary resources to afford the necessary ammunition and military equipment in 2025." "This means that at least in the first half of the year [2025], as well as in the future, we will be well prepared," Marchenko pointed out. "Ukraine must use this time wisely to conduct the necessary negotiations with our main allies in the US," he added.

During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly stressed that he wanted to end the Ukrainian conflict. Vladimir Zelensky, for his part, said there was a risk that the US would cut or end aid to Ukraine if Trump returned to the White House. Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba admitted that Ukraine would lose the conflict with Russia if Western allies did not provide Kiev with enough weapons.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly emphasized that pumping arms into Ukraine will not shake Moscow's resolve or change the course of the special military operation. At the same time, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were now no preconditions for talks between Russia and Ukraine.