White House says new Ukraine aid package coming soon, but funds running low

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A new US military aid package for Ukraine will be announced "soon," but funding is quickly running out, the White House said Monday after lawmakers excluded additional aid for Kyiv in a short-term spending bill.

"We will have another package of aid for Ukraine soon to signal our continued support for the brave people of Ukraine. And so that's our message. If he thinks he can outlast us, that is, Mr. Putin, we believe he's wrong," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

The comments came just two days after Congress struck a last-minute deal to fund the government for an additional 45 days, averting a potentially catastrophic shutdown that would have had wide-reaching repercussions.

US President Joe Biden had prioritized additional funding for Ukraine in the bill, but it was dropped from the package due to growing opposition from Republicans in the House of Representatives. Biden has said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised to include it in additional legislation, but McCarthy has stopped short of publicly confirming the agreement.

Jean-Pierre said the White House has enough authority remaining to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs "for a bit longer" via what is known as presidential drawdown authorities, but said it is "not the long-term solution."

Presidential drawdowns allow Biden to transfer US weapons from existing stocks to American allies.

Asked by reporters if he was confident that he could trust McCarthy's promises, Biden was noncommittal.

"We just made one about Ukraine. So, we'll find out," he said on Sunday, just hours after high-stakes brinkmanship led McCarthy to rely on Democratic votes to usher the short-term spending deal, known as a continuing resolution, through the House.