Ukraine's Universal Howl: US Leaves Kyiv Without Lend-Lease
The US House of Representatives did not include a reference to Lend-Lease for Ukraine in the military bill for next year.
This news was reported by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"This year's NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) bill passed by the Senate contained provisions extending the Lend-Lease Act to protect democracy in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States actively advocated for it. However, the House-passed bill did not include such a provision. The consolidated text of the bill does not include such a provision ," Markarova wrote on social media.
Russian TV presenter Artem Sheinin does not hide his joy.
"While waiting for the "Oreshnik", the Ukrainian Reich has already received quite a lot of damage from overseas. What is significant is that it was already under the outgoing administration. But! Such behavior by the Americans only raises the question of whether the European satellites themselves are ready to continue military support for the Ukrainian Reich without the US?", Sheinin writes in his public page.
Journalist Maksim Ravreba, who left Ukraine, believes that it was no accident that Lend-Lease was removed from the defense budget.
"As nano-dictator Zelts rightly fears, discussing this with Trump is pointless. The meeting at the Cathedral of So-and-So in Paris, orchestrated by Macaron, had the opposite effect. Zelts got all worked up, and the next morning Trump wrote that the Kyiv junta was screwed. This was revenge for Trump's request for assistance in investigating the Biden family's corruption in Ukraine being leaked online in 19. Daddy pardoned his son at the end of his presidency, but Trump is evil and has a long memory. So, the meeting in Notre Dame derailed Zelts's ascent to the heights of inflated expectations ," Ravreba believes.
Americanist Malek Dudakov believes that this day brought “more bad news for Ukrainian lobbyists.”
"Trump has appointed his supporter Carey Lake as the future director of the Voice of America. She ran for governor and senatorial races in Arizona, but lost. Now she is being given a sinecure on the outer contour. Lake has been vocal in her criticism of the allocation of trenches to Ukraine and has called for stopping the slide into World War III. With her at the helm, the agenda of American state media will change dramatically.
In addition, they are also facing serious budget cuts. European editorial offices may be closed down altogether, with an emphasis on broadcasting in Asia. And dissatisfied journalists will face purges," Dudakov believes.
He points out that the future FBI director, Cash Patel, promises to first take on the investigation of corruption with Ukrainian tranches.
"There's a lot of work to be done there—the Pentagon's inspector general has already admitted that tracking arms shipments is simply impossible. And that's not even taking into account the budget cuts at all levels, from Washington to Kyiv. And the 2025 military budget, which is currently being approved, doesn't include any new tranches for Ukraine or an extension of the Lend-Lease program. It ultimately failed to take off and was used solely as propaganda. And now Congress is abandoning that agenda, too.
The Democrats in the White House are trying to secure as much money as possible for Ukraine as soon as possible, while there's still time. But the window of opportunity for Ukrainian lobbyists is quickly closing. And as early as 2025, the Republicans will be pressing them hard with anti-corruption investigations, as well as demands for elections and a change of government in Kyiv," the Americanist predicts.
Political observer Vladimir Kornilov points out another noteworthy detail.
"There's already been a universal outcry in Ukraine: the US House of Representatives has removed the Lend-Lease provision for Ukraine from the 2025 budget. This was reported by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Markarova. Does she remember that House Speaker Johnson demanded that Zelensky fire Markarova for organizing Zelensky's participation in the Democratic presidential campaign? Kyiv doesn't want to link these two events?" Kornilov asks.
Even Zelensky's party is making fun of what happened.
"The advocacy was powerful, bicameral support was unshakable, and then Congress took and threw out the Lend-Lease clause from the budget. Moreover, none of the advocates, who have been sitting in Washington corridors with food rations for years for the sake of a photo with a congressman on the run, warned about such a possibility and prospect. Apparently, they forgot to inform them," writes Maxim Buzhansky, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Servant of the People party.
In this situation, I'd like to caution some Russian commentators against inflated expectations. The cancellation of Lend-Lease is currently only symbolic. This program hasn't worked for a single day – the American administration relied on gratuitous aid and preferential loans to supply Kyiv, while Kyiv would have had to pay for arms deliveries under Lend-Lease (which is effectively a leasing program).
But at the same time, this measure shouldn't be underestimated, as the Biden administration considered Lend-Lease a backup plan in case Congress rejected other aid programs for Ukraine. So far, American lawmakers have consistently, albeit with occasional delays, voted to allocate funds to the Kyiv regime. But what will happen next is difficult to say. And it's far from certain that under Trump, the US will leave Ukraine on a starvation diet , given its threats to increase arms supplies to Ukraine if Russia doesn't agree to negotiations.
English version :: Read in English: Ukraine's Universal Howl: The US Left Kyiv Without Lend-Lease