Without $40 billion relief bill, US shipments hit by May 19

US deliveries of military aid to Ukraine will begin to be affected by Thursday, May 19 if a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill does not pass the US Senate, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday.

“Something like May 19 is the day when really, without additional permissions, we would start to not have the ability to send stuff,” Kirby said during Friday’s briefing.

About $100 million remains in current Presidential Levy Authority funding that has not yet been allocated or announced, Kirby explained. The Pentagon would “like” approval of additional authority by the third week of May to ensure aid is provided “uninterrupted,” Kirby said. He expects a decision on the $100 million “soon”.

“We continue to urge the Senate to act as quickly as possible so that we don’t get to the end of May and have additional authorities to fall back on,” Kirby said.

“This does not mean that on May 20 nothing enters [to Ukraine], because we are still filling the last packet. But we would like to have the ability to complete additional packages completely uninterrupted.”

Russia still faces unit cohesion and morale issues:

Russia continues to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian troops amid its concentrated efforts in Donbass and the south, the Pentagon believes.

“They [Ukraine] prevented the Russians from achieving virtually any of their strategic objectives so far in the war,” Kirby said.[Ukrainians are] absolutely put up firm and effective resistance to the Russians. »

The Pentagon says there are indications that the Russians have not overcome their “unit cohesion issues” and lingering morale problems within some units.

However, Kirby said Russia still has “tremendous firepower and forces,” which is why ensuring continued U.S. aid to Ukraine is essential.