Headlines often say that Americans don’t support U.S. aid to Ukraine, but real Americans say otherwise. They have consistently affirmed that Washington should aid Kyiv in resisting Russian aggression. Congress last year acted on that wish: Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for each of the next two years. Appropriators fully funded that authorization for fiscal 2026 with overwhelming support.
Yet the Ukraine aid we passed months ago is now collecting dust at the Pentagon. When Senate appropriators have sought an explanation from the department’s policy shop, led by Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, they’ve been stonewalled. Our colleagues on armed services have also expressed growing frustration with the Defense Department’s inability to communicate.
Even the $400 million being held up is nothing compared to the $188 billion allocated to supporting Ukraine from 2022 to 2024 (of which $127 billion went towards arming and supporting Ukraine directly).
Everything allocated to the war with Iran (about $25 billion so far per the Pentagon) should have been allocated to Ukraine instead.
This, 400 million is very little in the context of an all-out war against the main US military adversary since the Second World War.
True. But it still looks symbolically bad.