Frustration is mounting on Capitol Hill as the Biden administration has failed to meet a deadline to provide Congress with a detailed written report of its strategy for the war in Ukraine, with at least one lawmaker seeking to suspend aid to Kyiv altogether until the document is provided.
The strategy report was due to be submitted to Congress in early June as a requirement of the multibillion-dollar package of military aid for Ukraine and other U.S. allies, which was passed in April after significant delays.
In the two and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration has yet to publicly detail in writing its long-term strategy for the conflict, in which the United States has played an integral role, providing Kyiv with some $175 billion in aid and working with partners in Europe and beyond to starve the Russian defense industry through sanctions and to rally support for Ukraine. That’s despite repeated urging from Congress, even before the supplemental aid was passed.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s ‘support’ for Ukraine has given the embattled nation just enough to survive but not enough to win,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement provided to Foreign Policy. “Time and time again, weapons viewed by the administration as too provocative were later provided. Without a clear strategy for victory in Ukraine, the administration is likely to continue down the same path, prolonging [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war of aggression and signaling U.S. weakness to our other adversaries, including communist China.”
President Joe Biden has repeatedly promised to stand by Ukraine as long as is necessary, but critics contend that the lack of a clearly articulated vision for America’s long-term role in the war has led to a de facto policy of enabling Ukraine to continue to fight, but not to win.
“I think, by default, our real policy is keep them viable, don’t let Ukraine get defeated, and wait for one side or the other to give up and go to the table,” said retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who served as NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe until 2016. “We need to have a real, demonstrative, declaratory policy,” he said.
Breedlove and five other retired U.S. military commanders and former senior diplomats, including former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, sent a letter to the Biden administration on Friday calling for Kyiv and its partners to come up with a “common definition of victory” and develop a “cohesive strategy to make that victory a reality.” The letter was first reported by Politico.
“I’ve never seen anyone really—and this should be coming from the U.S. government—that takes a comprehensive look at what are the tools of power that we have and how do we coordinate them into a strategy,” said Ian Brzezinski, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy.
But even as the Biden administration begins to roll out new aid packages to Ukraine after the passage of the supplemental, with the White House sending $225 million to Kyiv in July, some Republicans say the aid is coming too late, or in chunks that are too small. Lawmakers have also complained that the administration isn’t giving Ukraine enough leeway to use the weapons it has.
“This abdication of leadership, combined with numerous missed opportunities to capitalize on Russia’s battlefield mistakes, has needlessly cost lives and prolonged the war,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker said in an emailed statement. “Ukraine is demonstrating every day that it can defeat Putin’s illegal invasion. It is time for the President to take the handcuffs off our aid.”
“Congress can provide the funds and authorization, but only the commander-in-chief can fill the current leadership vacuum,” Wicker added.
The Republican Party has been split over the question of continued aid to Ukraine, with some pushing the Biden administration to do more, while the isolationist wing of the party has sought to dramatically dial back support to Kyiv, accusing the administration of reaching too far in its support of Ukraine and vowing not to approve further military aid packages. Among the skeptics is former U.S. President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
Failure to provide a clear goal for the billions of dollars in aid approved could see more members of Congress balk at future requests, said Kurt Volker, who served as U.S. special envoy to Ukraine during the Trump administration. “The biggest risk is that you don’t get more funding from Congress,” he said.
Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, included an amendment that made it into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the U.S. Defense Department’s authorization bill for the fiscal year that starts in September, that would prohibit sending funding to Ukraine until Congress gets the long-promised White House strategy. Davidson’s office did not immediately respond to Foreign Policy’s request for further comment. The bill, which is typically not finalized until the end of the year when both chambers meet in conference, is currently awaiting a vote on the House floor.
Longtime congressional staffers said that the Biden administration blowing through the deadline was par for the course for both Democratic and Republican administrations, which often have little regard for deadlines on Capitol Hill—even if they’re written into law.
“The idea that because you write a deadline for a report in the NDAA, it becomes a law, and the idea that that somehow is adhered to—not even close,” said Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, who was previously a staffer on the House Armed Services Committee. “I’ve received reports after begging and screaming and wailing that have been, like, literally years late.”
U.S. assistance has played a decisive role in supporting Ukraine during the war, and Washington finds itself deeply embroiled in a conflict it is not fighting, leaving it beholden to the ultimate objectives of Ukraine’s leadership. Administration officials have repeatedly said that it is for Kyiv to decide when and upon what terms it ends the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his goal is to liberate all of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.
The Biden administration and Kyiv have at times failed to see eye-to-eye about Ukraine’s military needs on the battlefield. “They’re already very frustrated; they don’t feel that we’re giving them what they need,” Volker said.
The U.S. National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the Ukraine strategy.
With Ukrainian troops now on the offensive on Russian soil in Kursk, McCaul has consistently pushed the administration to allow Ukraine to target Russia with the U.S.-provided long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which can hit targets nearly 200 miles away.
“If our partners lifted current restrictions on the use of weapons on Russian territory, we wouldn’t need to physically enter the Kursk region to protect our border communities and eliminate Russia’s potential for aggression,” Zelensky said in a post on X on Tuesday. “But for now, we cannot use all the weapons at our disposal and eliminate Russian terrorists where they are. Russian military bases, airfields, logistics, and other military facilities whose existence allows Putin to evade the search for peace are legitimate targets for our defense forces.”
Ukraine is allowed to use short-range multiple-launch rocket systems and artillery to range Russia with cross-border shots but cannot use longer-range weapons. The United States has also reportedly asked the United Kingdom to instruct Ukraine not to fire the long-range Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia.
“Those of us who support aiding Ukraine do not do so blindly. Since the earliest days of Putin’s war on Ukraine, we have asked the Biden-Harris Administration for a strategy on how the U.S. and our allies can help Ukraine win the war,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch said in an emailed statement. “President Biden and VP Harris owe a strategy not just to us, but to the American people, and their dereliction suggests they don’t have one or are afraid to share it.”
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