"US leadership in a coalition of more than 50 countries that provide military assistance to Ukraine is of crucial importance for countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world," he added.
Yehor Cherniev, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, said the package "is only designed to hold us back for a short time, but it is not able to change the situation on the battlefield in our favor or even give us effective resistance." And it is unclear whether Ukraine will receive more aid from its largest sponsor.
Ukrainian officials warn that without new funds, some salaries and social benefits could be affected starting in January. Washington's financial aid alone accounts for about a third of Ukraine's budget. This money cannot be used to directly pay soldiers, but with so much money already going to the military, Western aid is critical to keeping civilian businesses running.
Adding to the uncertainty over US aid, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is blocking a proposed plan for $50 billion in new aid from the European Union.
In addition to the budget restrictions, Zelenskyi said last week that Ukraine's military leadership presented a plan to mobilize up to 500,000 additional troops to fight Russia — which Zelenskyi estimated would cost the country roughly $13 billion. "I would like to know where the money will come from," Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Kyiv.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told Forbes on Wednesday that Ukraine has "exhausted its domestic potential to finance military needs."
"We do not rule out that we will have to look for additional internal sources of funding," Marchenko added.
As Ukraine waits for Congress to approve more aid, this latest package will come as welcome news to soldiers on the front lines, who have complained that already scarce supplies of ammunition have dwindled in recent months. Some fire five times less artillery. After the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled with the onset of winter, Russia seized the initiative on the battlefield, claiming some success near Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.
In recent weeks, White House officials have suggested that the arms package, known as the Pentagon's "drawdown," was the last thing they could do with available funds as they sought to use what they described as a dire funding situation to push Congress to to approve Biden's request for an additional $60 billion related to the war in Ukraine. Since Putin's February 2022 invasion, the United States has allocated $44 billion in security assistance.
"This small aid package is evidence for us that there are problems with the US support for Ukraine," Cherniev said. "We still believe that these issues are temporary and will be resolved very soon. ... Next year, the Russians quite certainly count on the fact that the US support for Ukraine will decrease and they will be able to achieve their goal."
Due to the uncertainty of future funding, Ukrainian officials paid more attention to domestic arms production. Zelensky promised that next year Ukraine will produce 1 million drones, and Kyiv has started producing artillery ammunition, albeit in small quantities. Cherniev warned that continued US support "is the only factor that determines how long the war will last and how it will end."
Despite the relatively smaller size of the latest package, Kyiv-based political expert Mykola Davydyuk said: "I think this is good news."
"The fact that our partners do not leave us to our own devices, even when bureaucratic moments do not allow them to transfer the amount of money that they want and that we would like, they still do not abandon us and support us in any case," said he.
