CNN
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As funding for Ukraine faces an unsure future in Congress, the US Military has been left to foot the invoice for a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in assist for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia over the previous couple of months — and Military officers are more and more involved that with out new funding, they may have to start pulling cash from different important initiatives to proceed supporting Kyiv.
Since October 2023, the start of the fiscal 12 months, the Military has spent over $430 million on varied operations, together with coaching Ukrainian troops, transporting tools, and US troop deployments to Europe.
“We’re mainly taking it out of cover within the Military,” a senior Military official informed CNN.
To date, that invoice has been paid from the Military’s Europe and Africa Command. And not using a 2024 price range accepted by Congress, and with out extra funding particularly for Ukraine, the command has roughly $3 billion to pay for $5 billion of operations prices, a second senior Military official defined. That features not solely the operations associated to Ukraine assist — coaching and ferrying weapons and tools to Poland and Ukraine — however different operations for the US command all through Europe and Africa.
If Congress nonetheless hasn’t handed new funding for Ukraine inside a number of months, Military officers say they should begin making laborious selections and divert cash from much less important initiatives, comparable to badly wanted barracks development or enlistment incentives amid record-low recruiting.
If the Military doesn’t pull funds from elsewhere, Military Europe and Africa’s roughly $3 billion price range would run out of cash for operations not simply associated to Ukraine, however elsewhere in Europe and Africa, by the tip of Might, the second senior Military official informed CNN.
“If we don’t get a base price range, if we don’t get Ukraine supplemental [funding package], if the federal government shuts down, if we get nothing else and nothing adjustments from as we speak … we’ll run out of [operations and maintenance] funding in Might,” the Military official mentioned. These operations embrace coaching workouts for Military forces in Europe and Africa and tools shifting into the theater. Contracts additionally wouldn’t be paid on time and would garner penalty charges, he added.
“We’d stop to exist” if these funds weren’t allotted from elsewhere inside the Military’s price range, the official mentioned.
Military Secretary Christine Wormuth — the service’s senior civilian chief who in the end decides the place a lot of the price range is spent — informed CNN she expects the Military would “need to form of rob Peter to pay Paul.”
“Each incremental greenback I’ve, it’s essential the place I put that greenback. And I’m continually selecting between, can we put it on barracks? Do I put it on enlistment incentives? Do I put it on workouts? Do I put it on modernization? I don’t have spare money to be simply form of donating a few of that,” Wormuth mentioned.
“This was cash that we anticipated to be replenished, clearly, by the supplemental,” she added, echoing the pressing want for funding.
Whereas US funding for Ukraine has dried up, coaching for Ukrainian troops has continued as a result of it has been deemed mission important by the president. Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for US Military Europe and Africa, informed CNN the US is coaching roughly 1,500 Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Coaching Space in Germany. Stateside, the US can also be persevering with its coaching of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 fighter plane at Morris Air Nationwide Guard Base in Arizona.
Along with coaching, tools continues to be flowing to the Ukrainians from US shares underneath earlier Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) packages and from weapons and tools that was bought from the protection industrial base underneath the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative (USAI).
The US was commonly asserting PDA and USAI packages till funding dried up on the finish of 2023.
Lawmakers in Congress have been debating a subsequent tranche of funding for Ukraine for months. Final week, the Senate voted to advance a $95.3 billion overseas assist invoice, together with $60 billion in assist for Ukraine. However it’s unclear what future the invoice has within the Home; Speaker Mike Johnson informed reporters Tuesday that he “actually” doesn’t intend to convey it to the ground for a vote.
“Proper now, we’re coping with the appropriations course of, now we have quick deadlines upon us, and that’s the place the eye is within the Home on this second,” he mentioned.
The tens of millions of {dollars} the Military has spent this fiscal 12 months to maintain the wheels handing over Europe is split into three principal classes, the second official defined — contracts, journey and transport, and provides.
This consists of logistics wants; meals; key tools, together with tents; and provides comparable to petroleum and restore elements, not only for Ukrainians but in addition the US troops coaching them. To date in fiscal 12 months 2024, the Military has spent $39.7 million on floor transportation, the primary senior Military official informed CNN.
Whereas a few of what the Military is spending will be replenished by way of the supplemental spending invoice being debated on Capitol Hill, it’s additionally important to the service for Congress to approve price range for the 2024 fiscal 12 months. Final month, lawmakers accepted a short-term funding bill to maintain the federal government open till the start of March. And it’s not simply the Military; Nationwide Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Daniel Hokanson informed reporters the company would finally want extra sources if the US meant to coach extra Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
“We do have the sources to persevering with the coaching that’s already began … and hopefully get all these of us accomplished afterward this 12 months,” Hokanson mentioned. “After which if we determine to extend that, clearly, we’ll want the sources to coach extra pilots and floor assist personnel.”
In a briefing earlier this month, Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, raised the shortage of a 2024 price range, saying the Pentagon is “shedding important time.”
“We’re already in our fifth month of this fiscal 12 months and the DOD continues to be … working underneath our third persevering with decision. That places in danger our nationwide safety and prevents the division from modernizing, as we’re constrained to present funding stage,” Singh mentioned. “We ask that Congress instantly move our base price range and supplemental request.”
And the second senior Military official warned that in the end, a delay in funding has broader penalties than a disruption in coaching or assist to Ukraine.
“It’s all interconnected,” the official mentioned. “And what we’re doing in a single house is impacting us all over the place. We renege on these things — you don’t assume China’s watching on the market within the Pacific? You don’t assume that’s going to have direct impacts on the Pacific? … Russia is certainly watching.”