U.S. Congress cuts Ukraine's 2025 lend-lease from military budget

The US House of Representatives has excluded lend-lease for Ukraine from the draft military budget for 2025. This was announced by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, on Thursday, December 12.

"It should be noted that this year's NDAA bill passed by the Senate contained provisions to extend the lend-lease law to protect democracy in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States actively advocated for this. However, the bill passed by the House of Representatives did not contain such provisions," she wrote on Facebook (owned by Meta, an organization recognized as extremist in Russia).

The Lend-Lease Act for Ukraine, allowing accelerated arms transfers to Kiev, was passed in May 2022. Now the US House of Representatives has excluded it from the draft military budget for 2025. The final decision will depend on the Senate, Gazeta.Ru notes.

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US shifts responsibility for Ukraine to allies

In July this year, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump may during his term develop a program to loan or lease U.S. arms, ammunition, strategic raw materials, food for Ukraine for $ 500 billion.

Later, on December 8, Trump said that after the change of the US administration, Washington would probably reduce the volume of military aid to Kiev.