Ukrainian officials are reportedly “freaking out” over the uncertainty about whether more aid for Ukraine will continue to be passed through by Congress, according to a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
“‘We are freaking out. For us it is a disaster’, said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, an MP who chairs the committee on Ukraine’s integration into the EU. ‘We are interested in getting things sorted out so American democracy can function, and so we can restore the bipartisan consensus on supporting their own national interest by supporting Ukraine’.
The ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker means there will likely be no legislative action until a new one is elected. ‘Until a new speaker is elected, the House cannot vote on laws, but all other work, including in committees, continues’, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova said in a statement on McCarthy’s ouster.
Markarova said separately that there is at least $1.6 billion left for the U.S. to arm Ukraine using the Presidential Drawdown Authority. However, the Pentagon told Congress there is $5.4 billion left in Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine, which became available thanks to an ‘accounting error’ that overvalued previous arms shipments.
Markarova also said there was $1.23 billion left in budgetary aid, which the U.S. provides through the World Bank and pays for Ukrainian government services and salaries, among other things. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the U.S. only has enough budgetary aid to pay for the month of October and that the funds would dry up if Congress doesn’t authorize more aid”. -Dave DeCamp, Antiwar
If the United States does not continue to finance the Kiev regime, Brussels and the member states of the European Union could potentially increase spending on economic aid for Ukraine.
Likewise, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has confirmed reports from Brussels that the European Union plans to officially announce the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession by the end of the year.
Ukraine would be joining eight other candidate nations who are seeking accession to the EU. These nations include Turkey, Albania, Georgia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While the inclusion of the nine countries into the bloc would force all EU member states to pay more to and receive less from the EU’s existing budget, resulting in a redistribution of funds within the union, according to an internal study conducted by the secretariat of the EU Council, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta would all no longer be eligible for cohesion funding on account of the expansion.