US President Joe Biden has warned that if Ukraine is not helped, the Balkan countries will be next.
The head of the White House believes unrest could spread to Europe if Congress fails to pass additional aid to Ukraine. “If we walk away and Russia manages to hold off their attack and collapse Ukraine, what do you think will happen in the Balkan countries?” he asked during a meeting with American mayors.
Biden also expressed concern about the fate of countries such as Poland and Hungary, which would also feel russian pressure if Kiev fails.
President Joe Biden's top aides told lawmakers directly that if Congress fails to authorize additional military aid for Ukraine in the coming days, Russia could win the war in weeks — months at best, according to two people familiar with the meeting . This was reported by NBC television.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes told congressmen that Ukraine will exhaust some air defense and artillery capabilities in the coming weeks. The grim assessment, which one White House official described as "incredibly stark," came as aid to Ukraine has never been more uncertain.
In a meeting Wednesday at the White House, Sullivan and Haynes gave top congressional leaders a classified timeline for when Ukraine's key military assets would be significantly depleted, as well as a detailed assessment of current battlefield dynamics, the two people familiar with the meeting said. Sullivan emphasized that Ukraine's position would become more difficult over the course of the year, a White House official said, offering specific ranges of dates when Ukraine would exhaust various capabilities in the short term.
Aides to the president also told congressmen that the lack of aid would affect far more than Ukraine and could prompt other countries that rely on Washington, including Japan and South Korea, to rethink their alliances with it. Their message is that a Russian victory simply because the U.S. did not succeed with aid to Ukraine "will reverberate around the world," people familiar with the meeting said.
Sullivan and Haynes told lawmakers it was no coincidence that Putin launched his biggest airstrike since the start of the war after Congress walked away last month without approving more aid. Aides to the president have pointed out that Ukraine is far more vulnerable to Moscow's attacks when Congress is in gridlock.
The bipartisan group of congressional leaders at the meeting agreed that providing aid to Ukraine is a national security priority, but acknowledged disagreements over how to proceed legislatively.
The aid to Ukraine, which has been held up in Congress for months, is part of legislation that also provides funding for border security to Israel, Taiwan and the United States, NBC recalls. In October, Biden requested an additional $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, some of which would be used to replenish U.S. stockpiles. Congress previously authorized about $75 billion in aid for Ukraine. For weeks last fall, White House officials expressed confidence that Congress would accept more aid, noting that a majority of Republicans and Democrats supported it. But opposition from some Republicans in Congress has stalled the legislation, and talks by a bipartisan trio in the Senate to change policy on the southern border, a top priority for Republicans, have been fruitless.
Although there are outstanding questions about the border portion of the bill, Senate leaders from both parties expressed optimism this week that the upper chamber could take up the legislation soon. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting that he put the chances of a deal at "more than half" and later said they could start working on the legislation as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the bill's fate in the House is much more uncertain. Biden has been warning for months, including in an Oval Office address to the nation, that the lack of new aid would be dire for Ukraine and the world order as a whole. /BGNES
