Despite previous guarantees to lawmakers, the US strategy for Ukraine was both late and totally classified, the paper has said
US President Joe Biden has not been honest with the American public about his administration’s plan for Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote in an article on Friday.
Despite Biden styling himself a supporter of Ukraine’s freedom in his speech to the UN General Assembly this week, he refuses to level with Congress and the American public about his strategy to achieve victory, the editorial stated.
In April, lawmakers passed a nearly $61 billion supplemental budget for Ukraine, after months of wrangling between Democrats and Republicans. One of the conditions stipulated was that the Biden administration articulate a strategy regarding US support for Ukraine within 45 days of the budget’s enactment, and quarterly moving forward.
“Biden knew this commitment was necessary to get aid through Congress, and he signed the bill,” WSJ observed.
Despite this, the strategy was submitted “months after the congressionally-mandated deadline,” the newspaper said, citing a press release from GOP lawmakers. “Also, and this is typical of the Biden stonewall: The document is entirely classified,” WSJ wrote, adding that congressmen want the strategy made available to the American public.
”Don’t count on the Administration following this order before Nov. 5, if it ever does,” the board said.
“A public release might mean that Vice President Kamala Harris would have to explain her own thinking on the war before the election. As long as she doesn’t, and the Administration covers it up, Ms. Harris co-owns Mr. Biden’s record of muddled half measures.”
The Biden administration announced a further $8 billion in military aid for Kiev on Thursday, reserving the remainder of a large Congressionally-approved allocation set to expire by the end of September. This came right after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky visited the US to pitch what he termed his “victory plan” to his biggest sponsor.
According to several Western media sources, Kiev’s wishes are now increasingly clashing with those of its backers in the West. Its allies have also so far denied its ever-more urgent demands to allow the use of Western-supplied arms to strike deep into Russian territory.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has rejected any possibility of compromise with Russia and ruled out negotiations. Ukrainian officials have suggested that escalating the conflict could force Russia to settle on Kiev’s terms.
Moscow views the conflict as a de facto proxy war and has warned that if Kiev is given permission to use Western long-range weapons, any such attack will be viewed as an act of war.
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