GOP Efforts to Stall Ukraine Funding a ‘Strategic Error’: Sen. Reed

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) (L) and ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) preside at a hearing in Washington on July 20, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—Current efforts by congressional Republicans to slow or stop U.S. funding for Ukraine will negatively impact security throughout the world, according to the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“What’s disappointing is that it seems that in the House particularly they are ready to fund Israel but not…Ukraine,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) during a Nov. 14 defense summit hosted by Politico.

He called this a “strategic error.”

Some Republican lawmakers have sought to excise Ukraine funding from a supplemental funding request that President Joe Biden proposed last month. The bill would fund national security priorities in Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, and the United States’ southern border.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus have said that they want funding to be geared more toward domestic needs in the United States, such as securing the southern border.

Mr. Reed said that any delay in funding for Ukraine would have outsized effects, as the nation’s allies seek to gauge U.S. willpower for sustaining a protracted conflict.

“I would prefer a supplemental that would have been considered a week or two weeks ago,” Mr. Reed said.

“We find ourselves running out of time.”

NATO, European Union Stepping Up

Mr. Reed’s comments come as U.S. allies in Europe prepare for the possibility of a United States that is less interested in maintaining stability throughout the world.

Major NATO allies like Germany are moving to double their previously proposed Ukraine aid packages for next year, while the European Union as a whole is prepping for the possibility of voting on a $60 billion aid package.

Mr. Reed said the delay in U.S. assistance “raises a host of questions among our allies. “This could have serious consequences.”

Some in Europe have suggested that waning U.S. support for Ukraine could lead to increased Russian conquests across NATO’s eastern flank. A key element of Russian strategic decision-making in Ukraine is outlasting U.S. willpower to fund that nation’s defense.

Czech National Security Advisor Tomas Pojar told reporters in October that Russian leadership was simply waiting for a change of leadership in the White House before pushing further into Europe.

“Putin is not going to be ready to stop within a year,” Mr. Pojar said. “He’s definitely waiting for the results of your elections here.”

Three contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have vowed to cut Ukraine funding.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it no secret that he wants to reunite the former territories of the Soviet Union, which he calls the “historical Russia.”

Mr. Reed said the choice was not whether to fund Ukraine at all, but whether to fund it now or send troops to defend an ally later.

“I’d rather send resources to a foreign country to fight their battles than young Americans to fight with them,” Mr. Reed said.