Sunk prices: As Biden seeks extra money for Ukraine, a have a look at what’s already been despatched

How a lot cash has the United States offered Ukraine as its battle to combat off an invading Russian military nears the 22-month mark? Let us rely the methods.

The math has turn into much more urgent as President Biden faces growing resistance on Capitol Hill to his request for an additional $61.4 billion for Kyiv, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy making a unexpectedly organized journey to Washington this week to make a private plea to lawmakers for continued U.S. help.

Half of the brand new package deal would go to restocking the Pentagon’s personal arsenals for the weapons, ammunition and different tools to be despatched to Ukraine’s forces, with the opposite half earmarked for intelligence help, humanitarian support and help to Mr. Zelenskyy’s authorities for emergency response, improvement and different accounts.

What has already been despatched to Ukraine — for protection, for humanitarian support and for financial rebuilding — will also be parsed in some ways. The Council on Foreign Relations and the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy have compiled operating tabs of the totals thus far, in addition to what has been pledged within the pipeline.

According to the CFR totals contained in a latest survey by Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow, U.S. bilateral support to Ukraine between Jan. 24, 2022 — a month earlier than the battle started — and Oct. 31, 2023, totaled $75.4 billion, of which $46.3 billion (61%) was for weapons, tools, grants for army purchases, coaching, logistics and different help.

The the rest of the funds was for humanitarian aid, together with cash for refugee help, and budgetary support to Kyiv to assist help the economic system.

Ukraine has been by far the most important overseas recipient of U.S. army support in that point, and even the brand new emergency protection request from the Biden White House for Israel is only a fifth of the $64 billion looked for Ukraine.

As it lobbies for congressional approval of the brand new support, the administration has additionally been dipping into current accounts on the Pentagon, together with a $200 million army support package deal Mr. Biden introduced throughout Mr. Zelenskyy’s go to this week.

Some 47 international locations world wide have offered army support to Kyiv, however the Kiel Institute and Council on Foreign Relations numbers present that the U.S. by Oct. 31 was by far the most important single supply of help, with greater than twice the whole of Germany, the following largest donor.

The 27 nations of the European Union mixed had dedicated by Oct. 31, 2023, simply greater than $80 billion in bilateral support to Ukraine, barely above the U.S. determine.

As a share of GDP, nonetheless, plenty of states have offered extra army, humanitarian and financial support than the U.S., led by Norway and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

And with the standing of U.S. help to Ukraine in query, Kiel Institute analysts say the European Union has surged previous the U.S. in future pledges of support, together with a deliberate $53 billion help package deal by 2027 accredited this summer time.

“For the first time, the U.S. is now lagging behind by a large margin, also because there have been no meaningful new U.S. pledges over the past months,” mentioned Kiel Institute Research Director Christoph Trebesch, head of the staff producing the institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker. “The doubling of EU aid is a notable shift compared to the first year of the war, when the U.S. clearly led the way.”

The funding deadlock additionally comes as a brand new report Wednesday urged the Kremlin was poised to spice up its personal spending on the battle.

Russian protection spending would rise sharply in 2024 below a brand new funds signed into regulation final month by President Vladimir Putin. The measure is a robust sign that Moscow is dedicated to persevering with its two-year-old battle in opposition to its smaller neighbor, in keeping with an evaluation by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The just-released SIPRI report estimates that Russia’s 2024 army funds — $140 billion — shall be 29% greater than the yr earlier than. It means the Kremlin will earmark 35% of all authorities expenditures to army and war-related spending.

“With planned reductions in military spending in 2025-26 after a sharp increase in 2024, and with the Russian presidential election due in 2024, Putin appears to be showing his intent to bring the war to a successful conclusion within the year,” SIPRI Director Dan Smith mentioned Wednesday.

The army {hardware} the U.S. has despatched to Ukraine additionally covers the broad panorama of recent battle, in keeping with the Council on Foreign Relations report, together with 100,000 Javelin and different anti-armor techniques; a Patriot air protection battery and Hawk air protection techniques; greater than 250 155mm and 105mm Howitzers with ammunition; 20 Mi-17 helicopters; 168 Bradley infantry preventing autos and 31 Abrams tanks; fight and surveillance drones; 2,000 Humvees and over 1,000 tactical and light-weight tactical autos; and two Harpoon coastal protection techniques and 62 patrol boats.

Critics say the administration has cried wolf earlier than on Ukraine funding, with the Pentagon discovering new pots of cash to maintain the help flowing. But the White House insists this time the shortfall is for actual.

“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote final week to letter to Hill leaders. “There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money — and nearly out of time.”