US expects about US$30 million in Ukraine military aid may be delayed: Sources
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US President Donald Trump with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky after their bilateral meeting at Intercontinental New York Barclay hotel on Sept 25, 2019.
PHOTO: DPA
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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The Trump administration expects that perhaps only US$30 million (S$41 million) of this year's US$250 million in military aid to Ukraine will not be put in the spending pipeline by a Monday (Sept 30) deadline, when the government's fiscal year ends, two US officials told Reuters.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, could not say whether the delay was caused by President Donald Trump's move to temporarily freeze nearly US$400 million in American aid to Ukraine.
But the disclosure that almost 90 per cent of the aid will meet the Monday deadline could suggest limited practical impact on Ukraine's military, despite the unfolding political drama in Washington.
The Pentagon has not said exactly how much aid will be spent by the end of the 2019 fiscal year, beyond saying that a majority of the US$250 million would be committed.
The US government has also sought more time from Congress to allocate the remaining funds.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump, accusing him of seeking Ukraine's help to smear Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the November 2020 election, and questioning whether he used the aid as leverage.
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, asked Ukraine's president in a July phone call to investigate whether Biden, a former vice-president, had shut down an investigation into a gas company that employed his son.
The call came after Trump ordered the government to freeze the aid. He later lifted the freeze, and the Pentagon resumed sending aid to Ukraine earlier this month.
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper declined on Wednesday (Sept 25) to say whether the White House decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine had harmed national security.
The United States says it has provided US$1.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. That assistance has expanded since Trump took office, including weaponry that could be used against Russian-backed forces in conflict-hit east Ukraine like Javelin missiles.
Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, declined Ukrainian requests to supply the country with Javelin anti-tank missiles.
In his July 25 phone call with Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commended him for "your great support in the area of defence". "We are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defence purposes," Zelenskiy said, according to a summary of the call released by the Trump administration on Wednesday.
Trump has denied trying to coerce Zelenskiy in the July 25 phone call to launch a corruption investigation into Biden and his son in return for the US military aid.
