Sullivan said that the aid to Ukraine would be enough for the whole of 2024. What will happen in 2025?
25 April 2024 13:47
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
Advisor to the US President Jake Sullivan has said that the United States is ready to provide Ukraine with everything it needs for war throughout 2024, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
“I do believe that with the resources we have, we will be able to provide Ukraine with everything it needs through 2024,” the adviser said,
– the advisor said.
Various, sometimes conspiratorial, interpretations of this statement began to appear online. Does it mean that there will be no more US aid in 2025? Kommersant Ukrainian asked political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko.
The expert noted that he does not see anything conspiratorial in Sullivan’s words, and that Ukraine will be able to use the approved US aid in 2025. Instead, many things in American politics are explained by procedural peculiarities.
“In this $61bn bill, the largest part of the aid is to restore the US Army’s reserves. In principle, the US President can take aid from these reserves within his powers, but they need to be restored. Last year, for example, there was a situation when there was $4 billion of unused aid left. But since the law on assistance to Ukraine for the new fiscal year was not voted on, it was impossible to use it [to help Ukraine – ed. Theoretically, the president had this opportunity, but there was a risk that he would be accused of taking the reserves from the US army,”
– he said.
After the law is passed, there will be no more obstacles to helping Ukraine.
“According to the current law, we can use most of the military aid not only in 2024, but also next year, if I’m not mistaken, until September 2025,”
– fesenko emphasised.
Therefore, the expert believes that Sullivan’s words contain a message for the domestic audience, the voters.
“The main thing that Sullivan means is that the power in the United States can change. Now we are ready to help Ukraine, and there is a law on assistance to Ukraine. We don’t know what will happen next. Sullivan hints that in order to provide assistance in 2025, it will be necessary to pass a law on assistance to Ukraine for the next financial year. And we also need to elect the right president. No conspiracy, he was talking about 2024 in connection with the presidential election and the need to pass a law on assistance to Ukraine for the next financial year,”
– says Volodymyr Fesenko.
Yesterday, US President Biden signed into law a $60.8bn aid bill for Ukraine. Of this amount, $23.2bn will remain in the US and be spent on replenishing US stockpiles.
