Biden administration blames Congress for fall of Ukrainian city

The Biden administration has said that the Ukrainian military withdrawal from Avdiivka was the result of Congress failing to provide additional money to support Kyiv’s war effort.

Ukraine ordered the withdrawal from the eastern city of Avdiivka before dawn on February 17, the country’s first major battlefield loss since the fall of Bakhmut last year, according to The New York Times.

“This is the cost of congressional inaction,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. “The Ukrainians continue to fight bravely, but they are running low on supplies.”

The Senate passed an emergency aid bill including $60.1 billion for Ukraine this week. The Biden administration has spent months pushing for additional funding, arguing that Ukraine is running out of artillery, air defense weaponry and other munitions.

On February 15, John F. Kirby, a senior national security official, said Ukraine’s struggles in Avdiivka were the result of shortages of artillery ammunition.

The US could not send additional artillery shells to Ukraine because Congress had not authorised more funding, Mr. Kirby said. As a result, Ukraine’s forces were not able to successfully counter the waves of troops Russia was sending into the city.

Mr. Kirby said that without additional aid to Ukraine, the Russian advances being seen in Avdiivka would be repeated in other parts of the front. American officials have also warned that by March, air defence ammunition supplies will be strained, allowing more Russian missiles and Iranian drones to hit their targets in Kyiv and other population centres.