US temporary budget will not halt aid delivery to Ukraine – MFA
The temporary US budget will in no way halt the delivery of assistance to Ukraine, which had been announced earlier, according to Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine's MFA.
The United States had previously announced allocating $1.6 billion for defense to Ukraine, another $1.23 billion in direct budget support, and funds for humanitarian and energy projects.
A potential US shutdown could have had a negative impact on the implementation of current programs in Ukraine, he says.
The FM spokesman added that Ukraine is currently actively working with the American side to ensure that the new US budget decision to be developed over the next 45 days includes new funds to help Ukraine.
We should not forget that the United States is currently undergoing domestic political discussions related to the American political process. Support for Ukraine remains unwaveringly strong both within the U.S. administration and among both parties and chambers of the US Congress, and most importantly, among the American people, the spokesperson emphasized.
The day before, the bloc of Republicans removed $300 million in aid to Ukraine from the bill: the Senate will consider these funds separately.
The Republicans took this step despite Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy's pledge last week not to remove funds for Ukraine from the draft defense budget.
Against this backdrop, the US Senate agreed on an alternative draft short-term budget resolution, which, among other things, provides more than $6.1 billion in additional assistance to Ukraine, including $4.5 billion for defense spending and more than $1.6 billion for economic support.
Reacting to adopting the budget to finance government agencies for 45 days without aid to Ukraine, White House Head Joe Biden said that interrupting support for Ukraine is unacceptable under any circumstances.
