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The U.S. is running out of money and time helping Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned in a letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and other congressional leaders.
Young said in the letter that by the end of the year, the U.S. will no longer have the funds to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine. It "will not be able to keep fighting," Young said of Ukraine, noting that the U.S. has already run out of money for propping up Ukraine's economy.
Last October, the Biden administration asked Congress for nearly $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. border security.
Funding for Ukraine has become politically controversial with some right-leaning lawmakers in the narrowly Republican-controlled Congress.
However, Young said in the letter released by the White House that cutting off funding and a flow of weapons to Ukraine would likely work to Russia's advantage on the battlefield.
"I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine, to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks," she wrote. "There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money - and nearly out of time," she said.
With a nod to important political swing states and Republican strongholds ahead of the 2024 election, Young noted that funding could be used for contracts with companies in Alabama, Texas, Georgia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said last week that the U.S. Congress was on the brink of making a tragic error.
"I think if Congress doesn't provide aid before Christmas, it would be a historic mistake," Warner told Reuters.
A Washington Post report details how friction and second-guessing between Washington and Kyiv on how to conduct military operations against Russia may have cost the momentum in Ukraine's much touted counteroffensive.
"As winter approaches, and the front lines freeze into place, Ukraine's most senior military officials acknowledge that the war has reached a stalemate," the Post writes based on interviews it conducted with more than 30 senior officials from Ukraine, the United States and European nations.
EU-Ukraine
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded that Ukraine's membership bid into the European Union not be on the agenda at the EU summit December 14-15.
In a letter he sent to European Council President Charles Michel, who will chair the summit in Brussels, Orban insisted that a "strategic discussion" is needed first about Ukraine's European future and warned that forcing a decision could destroy EU unity.
Orban, who is widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies in Europe, maintains that Ukraine is "light years away" from becoming an EU member.
He wrote that EU leaders "must avoid this counterproductive scenario for the sake of unity, our most important asset." He did not explicitly say that Hungary would veto any moves to open membership talks with Ukraine, but the threat was implicit.
AP has reviewed the contents of the letter.
Michel's office declined to comment.
Decisions regarding EU membership and EU's long-term budget, which includes $54.1 billion in assistance for Kyiv, can only be made unanimously by all 27 member countries.
Ukraine is relying on the EU funds to help its war-ravaged economy survive in the coming year.
"Ukraine's future membership in the EU serves as a robust assurance of security for our nation and the European community as a whole," Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, said during consultations with EU official Charles Fries on the EU's collective security commitments to Ukraine.
Diplomatic envoys of the EU's 27 member countries will meet Tuesday to start debating a launch of EU membership talks with Ukraine, according to officials and diplomats.
The meeting marks the start of preparations among the 27 for the December 14-15 summit of the bloc's leaders that will also assess and decide on EU integration prospects for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and others.
Ukraine-Russia fighting
In a post on the X social media platform, Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kyiv is focused on increasing domestic arms production and speeding up talks with partners to boost military supplies. He said that though Ukraine is anticipating a stiff offensive from Russia this winter, Ukrainians are prepared, taking into account the experience of the last winter.
"The winter won't be easy, given that Russia pays absolutely no attention to international law, conventions and rules of warfare, deliberately attacking civilians on a massive scale," Podolyak said.
Ukraine's military said Monday on the Telegram messaging service that it attacked oil depots in the Russia-controlled Ukrainian city of Luhansk a day earlier.
Earlier Monday, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Ukrainian troops attacked an oil depot there with combat drones.
Russia also attacked the country overnight with 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones, along with a cruise missile, the Ukrainian air force reported on Telegram. It said the military's air defenses shot down 18 of the 23 drones and destroyed the missile.
The air force said the air defenses operated in at least nine regions in Ukraine but did not specify which ones.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.