The amendment assumes an increase in the total amount of funds to $ 350 million, the newspaper Politico notes.
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (Republican from Ohio) and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat from New Hampshire) propose to include in the draft defense budget for the next fiscal year (started on October 1) a provision that assumes the allocation of an additional $50 million to Ukraine through the Pentagon. The newspaper Politico reported this.
As noted in the publication, lawmakers are seeking “an increase in funding from the Pentagon for arming Ukraine by another $50 million as one of the provisions of the draft defense budget, which is being discussed in the Senate.” As the publication states, it is not yet completely clear whether these amendments will be included in the final text of the document. No relevant agreements have been reached yet. It is possible that the legislators will not have time to do this, since they are also discussing many other initiatives.
In the text of the draft defense budget, which was previously approved by the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, it was noted that Ukraine in the coming fiscal year could receive about $300 million from the US through the military line. “Portman and Shaheen want additional aid allocation to be approved. Their amendment suggests an increase in the total amount of funds to $ 350 million, which is $100 million more than [U.S. President Joe] Biden requested,” the publication notes. – This money will be used for armaments; the minimum amount of funds allocated for weapons of destructive action will be increased from $75 million to $ 125 million.
Portman on Wednesday issued a statement in connection with reports of the delivery of two patrol boats of the Island type from the United States to Ukraine. He called on the U.S. administration to “allocate additional assistance in the form of anti-aircraft and anti-tank systems” to Ukraine. “I call on the Senate to vote on an amendment to the defense budget for the fiscal year 2022, which I propose with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, to increase the total amount of aid to Ukraine and prescribe allocating a large share of it to aid in the form of destructive weapons,” the legislator added.
As the newspaper notes, this additional assistance for Ukraine can be found from those funds that were previously intended for the Afghan security forces. It was supposed to allocate these funds for the needs of the Afghan military before the seizure of control in the country by the radical Taliban movement.
