U.S. intelligence officials and leaders from other nations agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has entered a drawn-out stage, with no end in sight. And while Biden administration officials continue to support sending more aid to Ukraine, as each successive round of U.S. aid to Ukraine is announced, senior U.S. officials and lawmakers are starting to get on edge about just how much and how long the United States is going to keep footing the bill for Ukraine.
The Biden administration is trying to get allies to step up their aid to Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview.
“There is concern as well, and there should be, rightfully so, about burden-sharing. And we certainly are trying very hard to get our allies and partners to step up,” Carpenter told The Daily Beast. “Some of the countries that maybe haven't provided as much militarily, we will certainly look to them to also provide reconstruction assistance and macro financial assistance, and other forms of support.”
The United States has contributed the most by far to help Ukraine defend itself since the beginning of the year, according to a Kiel Institute for the World Economy analysis. But as reality settles in for policymakers and lawmakers that this war is not going away anytime soon, a sense of unease at just how much the United States is bankrolling the aid is emerging.
In the coming weeks, European countries need to do far more to contribute to aid to Ukraine, especially given that this is their continent and they will be next if Ukraine doesn’t hold, warned Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“The Europeans need to realize that this is their backyard and they need to step up,” Cornyn said during his visit to NATO this week, according to Politico. “And they can’t just continue to depend on Uncle Sam to keep writing the checks.”
The future of democracy hangs in the balance, and everyone should be pitching in to help Ukraine, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group, told The Daily Beast.
“We know how precarious the situation is on the ground, and the U.S. and our allies should continue to do everything we can to ensure the Ukrainians have what they need to save lives and defend themselves from Russia’s invasion,” said Shaheen, who is currently leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to the NATO summit. “Putin’s deadly war in Ukraine isn’t just about Ukraine or even just Europe—it’s about the fate of democracies around the world in the battle against authoritarianism. It’s imperative that we listen to the aid requests made by our Ukrainian partners and ensure that assistance is swiftly delivered to save Ukrainian lives.”