Cutting Ukraine funding to hand Putin major win, US top leaders warn

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have warned senators that if lawmakers approve funding for Israel but not Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will win. 

Speaking during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Blinken and Austin urged senators to keep intact the Biden administration’s $106 billion supplemental request for Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, The Hill reports.

Austin and Blinken warned that without continued US funding for Ukraine, Russian forces would be sure to defeat Kyiv, with wider consequences for the globe.

“It’s hard to put an exact timeline on how long it would take,” Austin said when asked how long until Russia wins should the US fail to provide more aid to Kyiv. “I can guarantee that without our support, Putin will be successful … If we pull the rug out from under [Ukraine] now, Putin will only get stronger.” 

Blinken, meanwhile, said “it would do both terrible harm to our values, but also to our core interests” to leave Ukraine out in the cold.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if Putin is allowed to continue to act with impunity, not only would he not stop at Ukraine and potentially go to a NATO country next … it would send a message to would-be aggressors everywhere in the world, that, ‘If he can get away with it, so can we,’ and then we’re likely to have a world full of conflict,” Blinken said.

“We are much better sustaining our effort now, seeing this to success, than having to pay a much higher price later when we have to deal with a world full of aggression.” 

The hearing comes as the Senate and House are headed for a clash over Ukraine aid, with House Republicans looking to vote on a separate $14.3 billion military aid package for Israel.  

The amount matches Biden’s request for the country, but it cuts out more than $60 billion for Ukraine under the president’s supplemental. The White House has warned it has less than $5.5 billion left to pull weapons from US stockpiles to send to Ukrainian troops.