Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin noted that Kiev will not be able to defend itself
NEW YORK, November 23. /tass/. Assistance to Ukraine from the United States is more critical than assistance to Israel, since Kiev will not be able to defend itself. This opinion was expressed by the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin (Democrat from Maryland) in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.
"It is important to help Israel, but it is not critical for the ability of Israelis to defend their country. The timeliness of assistance is much more critical for Ukraine," he said. Although the United States, according to the senator, should supply the Jewish state with the necessary interceptors and missile defense means to maintain the operation of the Iron Dome air defense system, however, Israel "has the opportunity to defend itself." At the same time, "Ukraine is in despair and needs immediate help," he added.
Commenting on the single package of funds that the US presidential administration proposed in October to allocate to help Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, as well as to protect American borders, Cardin pointed out that this initiative is now under consideration by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress. He noted that the situation with migrants and border protection cause the greatest difficulties in the Senate. "The issue of border security is the main condition for the bill in its current form to continue to be considered in the Senate," the legislator stressed.
Earlier, the coordinator for strategic Communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said that the US administration had spent about 96% of the funds allocated for assistance to Ukraine. He stressed that the absence of further major assistance from the United States would have a detrimental effect on Ukraine's defense capability. On November 21, the First Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States Kathleen Hicks at a meeting with the Washington group of military observers, of which TASS is a participant, said that the American government will experience great difficulties with providing military assistance to Ukraine if Congress does not allocate additional funds from the federal budget for this.
In October, the US administration sent a request to Congress for additional large budget allocations in the 2024 fiscal year (began in the US on October 1). First of all, this concerns assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as countering China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. In total, the US executive branch would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes. The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains in question. Several Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate of Congress have recently publicly spoken out against continuing to provide financial assistance to Kiev.
