John Kirby on aid to Ukraine: 'Time is not on their side'
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby discusses the Israel-Hamas conflict, possible sanctions against the Iranian regime and the importance of sending aid to Ukraine.
EXCLUSIVE: The United States government has spent at least $113 million on the war in Ukraine, but that total could be considered much greater due to the cost of replacing weapons and munitions sent to Kyiv, as estimated by the Pentagon, Fox News Digital has learned.
Fox News Digital first reported in September that the United States had spent a total of $101 billion on the war. Since September, the U.S. has spent at least an additional $13 billion, according to documents from the White House Office of Management and Budget sent to Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young broke down some of the spending in a letter to Vance, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.
US SENDING UKRAINE $300 MILLION IN WEAPONS DESPITE LACKING FUNDS TO REPLENISH ITS OWN STOCKPILES
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Biden shake hands at Mariinsky Palace during an unannounced visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 20, 2023. (Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS)
Young said Congress has provided $111 billion in supplemental funding in response to the war in Ukraine, including "life-saving security, economic, and humanitarian assistance through four supplemental appropriations acts."
Young also acknowledged an additional $2.4 billion in "shifted base" funding that "was not explicitly for Ukraine supplemental purpose," so that funding was "excluded" from the total estimate she provided.
Young sent Vance a spreadsheet breaking down the funding, which Fox News Digital obtained.
Young said that total also includes funding "that has not gone directly to Ukraine but that is being used in support of Ukraine, which is why different figures for U.S. assistance ‘to Ukraine’ are sometimes used."
In addition to the supplemental funding packages, Young said that "out of regular appropriations," the State Department and USAID provided $145 million and $189 million in fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023, respectively. The funds went toward "core activities such as global health, as well as ongoing embassy operations funding."
Young also revealed that State and USAID have "reprogrammed approximately $350 million in prior year balances to support Ukraine."
Young's letter is the first time those funds to Ukraine were disclosed, a source told Fox News Digital.
FLASHBACK: WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS MORE THAN $100B SPENT ON UKRAINE WAR
"We are at a critical moment in our effort to assist Ukraine, as Russia seeks to exhaust what it views as Ukraine’s dwindling supplies of artillery and air defense munitions," Young wrote. "We are already seeing the battlefield impact of the delays in our assistance, with Ukraine having recently been forced to withdraw from the town of Avdiivka due to supply shortages."
Young said "absent a swift infusion of U.S.-funded or supplied munitions and equipment, Russia stands to make further gains."
"For Ukraine to succeed in defending its freedom and preserving European security, continued United States support is absolutely critical," she added. "Departments and agencies have done everything they can with their limited resources to continue to support Ukraine in the absence of additional supplemental funding, but these limited resources will not be sufficient to meet Ukraine’s critical needs in FY2024, and if left unchanged will provide an advantage for Russian forces."
$10 billion in the hole on Ukraine aid
The Pentagon told Fox News Digital that, since 2022, it has notified Congress of $25.85 billion in funding needed to replace what was sent to Ukraine through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA).
Under the PDA, the U.S. sends military equipment in DOD’s stockpiles abroad, and this process is being used to aid Ukraine. The process is swifter than buying new weapons for Ukraine, but it also depletes U.S. stockpiles.
The Defense Department has asked Congress for an additional $10 billion it says is needed to replenish stocks of what has already been sent to Ukraine.
"However, over $10 billion in additional funding is required to replace remaining DoD stocks and services that have been drawn down for Ukraine but have not yet been replaced," a Pentagon spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The over $10 billion PDA replacement backlog reflects the cost of replacement, which is distinct from the Presidential Drawdown Authority."
The spokesperson explained that "the cost of replacement items will nearly always be higher than the net book value of the older items they are replacing."
"For example, a service draws down two munitions of the same variant for Ukraine. One is 20 years old, and one is 3 years old. The value of the 20-year-old munition is significantly less than the value of the 3-year-old munition," the spokesperson explained. "However, the cost to replace these munitions is the same; both must be replaced with new production munitions from the same production line."
The Biden administration has the authority to send an additional $4.1 billion in drawdown aid, $300 million of which was used this month by the Pentagon to assist Ukraine. The package is the Pentagon’s first for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds, being deeply overdrawn and needing at least $10 billion to replenish the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv. That's in addition to the $900 million already spent by the Department of Defense.
Vance has blasted the Biden administration for covering up the actual cost of the war on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.
"The Biden administration has consistently taken steps to obscure the cost of propping up the war in Ukraine," a Vance spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "As European nations have failed to do their part, the reality is this conflict has been substantially more expensive for the American taxpayer than its backers previously admitted.
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"The massive Ukraine supplemental passed over the objections of the majority of Senate Republicans will make this problem worse, not better."
Last year, the Pentagon requested an additional $6 billion due to an accounting error at the Department of Defense. Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced legislation soon after to prevent such mistakes from being repeated.
The bill came after the Pentagon admitted it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years, about double the early estimates.
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