White House sends secret report on Ukraine war strategy to Congress - Reuters
Photo: Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Getty Images)
The administration of US President Joe Biden has sent a secret report to Congress on its strategy for the war in Ukraine. This comes several months after a June deadline was set in the $61bn aid bill passed in April, Reuters reports.
A congressional aide said the report was delivered to lawmakers on September 9 and they had not yet had a chance to review it. Two other anonymous sources confirmed that the report had been delivered.
Aid to Ukraine
In the two-and-a-half years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Congress has approved nearly $175 billion in aid and military assistance to Ukraine and allied countries.
After several months of delay, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a $95 billion supplemental spending bill in April that included $61 billion for Ukraine, as well as billions of dollars for Israel, civilians in conflict zones around the world, and to counter communist China in the Indo-Pacific.
As part of this law, Congress instructed the Biden administration to submit a detailed strategy for Ukraine by early June.
Biden's assistance to Ukraine is supported by Democrats and many Republicans in Congress. However, some Republicans have criticized his administration for restricting Ukraine's use of US equipment, such as refusing to supply weapons that can hit targets deep inside Russia.
Washington has restricted the use of these weapons because of limited stockpiles of missiles, the lack of justification for their use given that most Russian aircraft are out of range, and concerns that it would allegedly escalate the conflict.
Delayed report
Weeks after the deadline passed and the report was not submitted, some members of Congress said they were disappointed and would consider blocking further funding.
In a statement sent to Reuters in late August about the report, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he supports aid to Ukraine but does not do so blindly.
"Since the earliest days of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war on Ukraine, we have asked the Biden-Harris Administration for a strategy on how the U.S. and our allies can help Ukraine win the war. When they did not respond to our requests, we mandated in law that a strategy be sent to Congress, but the deadline has passed with no response. President Biden and VP (Kamala) Harris owe a strategy not just to us, but to the American people, and their dereliction suggests they don’t have one or are afraid to share it," Risch says at the time.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would provide a victory plan for Ukraine to US President Joe Biden and both presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
