2 weeks ago
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The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once the Senate passes a long-delayed aid bill. That's because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.
Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said this past week, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.
“We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.
The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed a larger foreign aid bill toward a vote despite threats from within his party that doing so could cost him his job. It still needs to clear the Senate.
After the House vote, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was grateful “for the decision that keeps history on the right track.” He said on X, formerly Twitter, that the House action “will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”
President Joe Biden has said he would sign it “immediately.”
If that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.”
