Biden blames Congress aid snafu for fall of Ukrainian city, warns more may follow
President Biden is blaming US lawmakers’ “absurd’’ failure to approve emergency aid to Ukraine for the fall of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka to Russia over the weekend— and warns other towns may collapse, too.
“There’s so much on the line,” Biden, 81, told reporters Saturday, the same day Ukraine was forced to retreat from its eastern city after months of fighting to retain control — handing the Kremlin one of its most significant recent victories.
“The idea that now we’re running out of ammunition — to walk away, I find it absurd. I find it unethical,” Biden said of the struggling Ukrainian war effort and Congress’s failure to approve additional funding to its US ally.
“So I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need” Biden vowed, speaking not far from his Rehoboth Beach, Del., vacation home.
Biden added he is not confident that other Ukrainian cities won’t fall into Russian hands before Congress approves more aid.
“I’m not. I’m not. No one can be,” he said. “The Ukrainian people have fought so bravely and heroically.”
He also revealed that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and tried to reassure him that Congress would green-light the aid eventually.
“I spoke with Zelensky this afternoon to let him know I’m confident we’re going to get that money,” Biden said. “There is so much at stake.”
Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for Biden’s National Security Council, said bluntly Saturday that Avdiivka’s fall “is the cost of congressional inaction.”
Zelensky met with US officials at the Munich Security Conference in Germany over the weekend, where Ukraine’s plight was up front and center among the discussions.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who attended the summit, recounted that Zelensky did not blame the US specifically for the fall of Avdiivka but did express grave concerns about aid.
“Zelensky, of course, did not blame his current situation or what occurred [Saturday] on the delay that’s occurring,” Turner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.
“He did indicate that he’s certainly worried that the delay could cause a gap in weapons getting to the Ukraine.”
Biden requested that Congress replenish aid to its war-torn ally back in August, but lawmakers have been in a stalemate for more than seven months over whether and how to do it.
Last week, the Senate passed a $95 billion package that allocates around $60 billion for Ukraine, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) indicated the lower chamber won’t take it up.
Johnson has demanded that any aid to Ukraine be paired with tightened US border security. But he also has previously pronounced a bipartisan supplemental package with border security from the Senate “dead on arrival” in the House.
Republicans have splintered over whether to re-up aid to Ukraine, a situation that poses serious political complications for advancing the legislation.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said that funding for Ukraine is dried up, while Kyiv grapples with dwindling artillery on the battlefield against Russian invaders.
On Feb. 24, Ukraine is set to mark the two-year anniversary of Russia’s bloody invasion of it.
Johnson says he has sought a meeting with Biden to clear the air on their differences over additional funding but claims the White House has declined to give him one.
“What is there to negotiate?” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week. “He’s negotiating with himself.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has seemingly kept open the possibility of deploying a discharge petition, meaning members could try to do an end-run around Johnson and get the bill to the floor for a vote.
