Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced trip to Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The visit occurred when the mood about Ukraine’s prospects in the 21 month-long war are increasingly pessimistic. Notwithstanding Zelensky’s admonitions and small Ukrainian tactical advances in Kherson’s left-bank, the frontlines have barely moved over the last five months. The Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in early June has turned out to be a flub, running into Russian trenches, minefields, and artillery fire. The last significant Ukrainian gain happened one year ago, when Russian troops withdrew from Kherson after finding it too logistically difficult to defend the riverside city.
Austin’s visit was an attempt to buttress Ukraine’s morale in the face of what will be a grueling winter of Russian air attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid. He reiterated what his boss, President Joe Biden, has said robotically ever since the war erupted in February 2022: The United States will support Ukraine’s war effort for as long as it takes. “I wanted to reassure the leadership that the United States of America will continue to support Ukraine,” the defense secretary said during a briefing in the Ukrainian capital. “We talked about the things that we’re going to continue to do to make sure that they have what they need to be successful on the battlefield.”
The problem from the Biden administration’s standpoint? These aren’t assurances they can give. Congress, not the president, determines how long Washington can keep up the support. As the U.S. Constitution states, the legislative branch is the body responsible for writing the checks; the executive simply spends the money.
Austin’s comments are therefore more symbolic than substantive. While the White House would very much like to continue Ukraine aid in perpetuity, it needs Capitol Hill’s cooperation to make it happen. That’s much easier said than done. A growing number of Republican lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, are getting tired of authorizing and appropriating aid packages to finance a war they view, at best as a stalemate and at worse as a money-suck. Zelensky and his senior advisers may be alarmed and angry about such perceptions, but the perceptions are there regardless and it doesn’t do Kyiv any good to ignore it.
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