US defense chief vows continued aid to Ukraine, even as Congress is stalled on funding bill

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed Tuesday that the US will continue to support Ukraines war effort against Russia, even as the US Congress remains stalled over funding to send additional weapons to the front.The United States will not let Ukraine fail, said Austin, addressing more than 50 defence leaders from Europe and around the world who are meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed Tuesday that the US will continue to support Ukraine's war effort against Russia, even as the US Congress remains stalled over funding to send additional weapons to the front.

"The United States will not let Ukraine fail," said Austin, addressing more than 50 defence leaders from Europe and around the world who are meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. "This coalition will not let Ukraine fail. And the free world will not let Ukraine fail." The meeting comes a week after US defence officials found and used USD 300 million in contract savings to fund a new package of military aid for Ukraine, pulling weapons from Pentagon stocks.

During the session, leaders from other nations discussed new aid for Ukraine. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters that Germany will provide ammunition and armoured and transport vehicles worth about USD 542 million (500 million euros).

"We are helping Ukraine with what it needs most in its defence against Russian aggression," Pistorius said, adding that the aid includes 10,000 rounds of ammunition from the German Army, or Bundeswehr, stocks that would be delivered to Ukraine very soon, as well as 100 armoured vehicles for the infantry and 100 transport vehicles.

Asked whether he still sees the Americans as a reliable ally considering the ongoing delay in funding approval by Congress, Pistorius said, "I have no doubt about the reliability of the Americans." The USD 300 million US aid package was the first tranche of weapons sent by the Biden administration since December, even as battlefield conditions in Ukraine have been getting increasingly dire.

The found money — which officials called a "one-time shot" — allowed the Defence Department to use presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to pull weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks and send them quickly to Ukraine. The funds are then used to buy replacement items to ensure the US military is ready to fight and protect the homeland.

US leaders had insisted for the past three months that they couldn't take more weapons off the shelves because they have run out of money to replenish the stocks. Congress has been deadlocked for months over a new USD 95 billion supplemental bill that includes about USD 60 billion in aid for Ukraine.

US officials maintain there is bipartisan support for the package, but a number of Republicans oppose it, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.

Funding to train Ukrainian forces is also at risk. The US Army regional command for Europe and Africa, which is based in Germany, has spent more than USD 500 million out of its base budget so far this fiscal year to conduct the training and expects to run out of money by June, according to US officials.

The command spent about USD 2 billion for training in the fiscal year that ended last September 30, which was paid for through supplemental funding passed by Congress. The US has trained about 19,000 Ukrainian forces to date, the bulk of them at the Army bases in Germany. All together, the international coalition has trained more than 129,000 Ukrainians at more than 100 different locations around the world.

Training has slowed a bit, as the US is waiting for the next large tranche of Ukrainian troops to arrive. Scheduling can be difficult because Ukraine often has to pull troops from the battlefront to send them for training.

US officials have been publicly expressing the hope that lawmakers will manage to act soon to approve the supplemental bill, but they have also been struggling to find other ways to get assistance to Ukraine.

Defence officials continue to warn that Ukraine remains heavily outgunned by Russia on the battlefield, and note persistent reports of Ukrainian troops rationing or running out of ammunition on the front lines.

Just last month, Ukrainian troops withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiivka, where outnumbered defenders had held off a Russian assault for four months. Troops complained of running low on ammunition while facing a constant barrage of airstrikes from glide bombs, enormous unguided Soviet-era weapons, retrofitted with a navigational targeting system, that obliterate everything around them, as well as motion-sensing explosive drones that could enter buildings and hunt personnel.

Tuesday marks the 20th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key organization coordinating for the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

In his opening remarks, Austin said Russia has paid a "staggering cost" for the war, repeating estimates that at least 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war, which has cost Moscow up to USD 211 billion.

"Ukraine's troops face harsh conditions and hard fighting. And Ukraine's civilians endure a constant barrage of Russian missiles and Iranian drones," said Austin. "But Ukraine won't back down. And neither will the United States."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)