Pentagon Commits Nearly All $400M in Ukraine Aid a Day Before Deadline

The Pentagon has committed nearly all of the $400 million in military aid Congress approved for Ukraine, only a day before the funds were set to expire. Senator Chris Coons, a senior member of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, told The Washington Sun on Tuesday, Sept. 29 that Pentagon officials had informed him during the same morning that 99.8% of the funding had been obligated.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Coons sharply criticized the Department of Defense for waiting until the final hours of the fiscal year, despite months of pressure from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. “The fact that they are finally doing it, like on the last possible day, tells you everything you need to know about that relationship,” Coons said. “They don’t brief us on time. They don’t follow the law, and the partnership is struggling,” he added. A last-minute push The funding comes from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a Pentagon program through which the US procures weapons and equipment for Kyiv. Congress approved the $400 million late last year, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced its allocation in June, Ukrainska Pravda reported. As of late July, the funds had still not been obligated, according to Reuters. By early last week, the defense department had obligated $307 million and planned to lock in the remaining $93 million before the deadline, three sources familiar with the plan told Reuters on Sept. 25. Other Topics of Interest Ukrainian Military Delivers Aid to Lyman Area as Fight for Donbas Continues The aid mission was announced after President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Lyman front, where Ukrainian forces have retaken more than 125 square kilometers (48 square miles). The funds did not have to be spent by the end of the fiscal year on Wednesday, Sept. 30, but they would have expired if not placed under contract by then. However, signing the contracts does not mean immediate deliveries. The first shipments of weapons and equipment began in September, while the remaining items are expected to arrive by October 2029, Reuters reported. Months of pressure from Congress At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on April 30, Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst said the funding had recently been released and would be “put to work very shortly.” The department then missed a May 15 deadline it had set for providing Congress with a spending plan, according to The Washington Sun. In response, Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led a bipartisan letter urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to obligate the funds. The letter also called for the release of congressionally approved funding for the Baltic Security Initiative, a program supporting the defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer and Thom Tillis, along with Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and Catherine Cortez Masto, also signed it. No Patriot interceptors included The Pentagon’s plan allocated $200 million for weapons, ammunition and explosives, $99.9 million for vehicles, spare parts and equipment. Another $100 million is intended for services such as transporting military equipment, Reuters reported in July. The more recent contracts include offensive weapons and spare parts for armored vehicles. However, the package does not include Patriot interceptors, one of Reuters’ sources said, despite Ukraine’s repeated appeals for more ahead of winter, when Russia is expected to step up attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure. Currently, the Patriot systems are the only weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal that can reliably down Russian ballistic missiles. During the 81st United Nations General Assembly held last week, US President Donald Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky that he had made a “final decision” to grant Ukraine licenses to domestically produce Patriots. He had previously made a similar pledge during the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8, but retreated from the commitment weeks later, citing concerns over sharing sensitive weapons technology with other countries. In the meantime, Ukraine announced that it was signing contracts with partners for the supply of about 1,000 Patriot missiles ahead of winter. Around the same time, Germany announced it would urgently transfer the PAC-2 missiles to Ukraine from its own Bundeswehr stocks. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.