Pentagon warns Ukraine may face grim settlement trade-offs without timely US aid approval
In the event that the United States is unable to provide assistance, according to Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, Ukraine will have to choose which settlements the Armed Forces of Ukraine will fight for, given the available resources.
"If we don't get the supplemental funding needed from the Senate or from the House to pass the Senate supplemental, we will not be able to provide these critical PDA packages" Singh stated.
Then "Ukraine will have to make choices and decisions on what cities, what towns they can hold with what they have and what partners can continue to supply them."
Singh cannot predict anything at the moment, because it is "really the Ukrainians' decision to speak to."
"But obviously they're in a critical fight for their lives, for their country, and that's why you heard me say in very stark terms that's why we need the supplemental immediately. And we've been saying that and sounding these alarm bells since October," Singh stressed, noting that she will continue to call on the US Congress to do its job.
The speaker also added that Avdiivka was a strategic withdrawal that Ukraine made in order to preserve its own artillery and ammunition.
At the same time, the strategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council of the White House, John Kirby, on Tuesday blamed the US Congress for the deaths of Ukrainians and the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Avdiivka.
On February 14, American President Joe Biden called on the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, to immediately put to a vote the bill on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
On February 16, 10 members of the US House of Representatives developed a compromise bill on foreign aid, which provides $47.7 billion for Ukraine.
On February 19, a senior U.S. military official said that because funding for Ukraine in the U.S. Congress has an uncertain future, the U.S. military has been forced to foot the bill to support Ukraine's military efforts against Russia over the past few months.
