Republican head of arms committee urges Biden to step up aid for Ukraine

A leading Republican official has urged Joe Biden to aggressively accelerate aid to Ukraine in his final months in office.

Roger Wicker, the head of the Senate’s armed forces committee, said the outgoing president risked leaving his successor with a “weak hand” if he failed to heed the warning.

The intervention came as Mr Biden urged the West to sustain its backing for Kyiv against Russia’s full-scale invasion ahead of next month’s US presidential election.

The looming ballot has raised concerns over Washington’s resolve with both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris expected to cut back on military aid for Ukraine.

“I am frustrated – and mystified – that your administration has accomplished so little in the last three months regarding the war in Ukraine,” Mr Wicker wrote in a letter to the president.

“You seem poised to leave the next president a weak hand. Nonetheless, I maintain that a focused effort – directed by you – could make a substantial difference over the final 90 days as president.”

Mr Wicker was one of 22 Republicans who broke with the pro-Trump wing of their party to approve $95 billion in aid to Ukraine and Israel in February.

But in his letter, the Mississippi senator accused Mr Biden of being too slow to disperse aid to Kyiv.

“The current pace of Presidential Drawdown Authority usage would drag on through calendar year 2025,” Mr Wicker wrote.

“Your administration has said that the pace of deliveries will not change. Ukraine will continue to receive only about $400 million in military equipment for the next 14 months,” he added.

Laying out a 10-point plan, Mr Wicker said the US had to ramp up the pace of its deliveries to Ukraine, including more long-range Atacms missiles for Kyiv’s deep-strike campaign.

He also proposed sharing more intelligence and removing the limits placed on the number of US military contractors allowed to operate in the war-torn country.

Ukraine is facing a perilous winter as Russia makes steady gains through the eastern Donbas regions, while there are doubts over future US support.

Trump has refused to say whether he wants Kyiv to win the war and blamed Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, for Russia’s invasion.

His comments have consistently raised concerns that he will pull the plug on any future support for Kyiv.

Trump has also suggested that US support for its European Nato allies would be contingent on member states hitting spending targets.

Senior officials inside the Western military alliance are braced for US aid to shrink regardless of the winner of the upcoming election.

Experts argue that there is little appetite in Congress to sanction repeat military support packages the size of the $60 billion agreed for Ukraine earlier this year.

During a diplomatic visit to Berlin, Mr Biden on Friday said it would be a mistake for Western support for Kyiv to wane.

“As Ukraine faces a tough winter, we must, we must sustain our resolve,” he said in a statement. “And I know the cost is heavy, but make no mistake, it bears in comparison to the cost of living in a world where aggression prevails, where large states attack and bully smaller ones simply because they can.”

The US president also said there was no international consensus for granting Mr Zelensky’s requests for permission to use Western long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.