The Biden administration may have found a "very clever" way to circumvent the congressional deadlock over further Ukraine military aid as Kyiv battles against new Russian offensives along the war's front lines.
The Biden administration has offered Athens 60 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, among a host of other military equipment, according to a letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
"We continue to be interested in the defense capabilities that Greece could transfer or sell to Ukraine," Blinken wrote. "If these capabilities are of interest to Ukraine, and pending an assessment of their status and value by the US government, we can explore opportunities for possible additional Foreign Armed Forces Financing of up to $200 million for Greece."
This is a "very clever way for the US administration to arm Ukraine in the short term while the big US arms package is blocked by a few Putin supporters in [Washington] DC," Bill Browder, the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and a prominent Kremlin critic, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Bradley fighting vehicles "are likely destined to Ukraine," analyst Samuel Ramani tweeted.
The U.S. is the single largest provider of military aid for Ukraine. Since February 2022, Washington has sent more than $44 billion worth of security assistance to Kyiv. But future aid is not certain in a divided Congress. Republicans pressing for tighter controls on the southern border are blocking new assistance, which Ukraine sorely needs to sustain its resistance to Russian forces as the war's two-year anniversary later this month approaches.
There is precedent for the latest move. In January 2023, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, Laura Richardson, said Washington was working with countries that have "Russian equipment to either donate it or switch it out for United States equipment." But the suggestion fell flat among ruling governments across Latin America.
In September 2022, Congress was told the U.S. would give Greece a $30 million grant for defense procurement to "encourage critical support to Ukraine," Blinken said. In October 2023, the U.S. doubled this figure, hoping to prompt "further donations" to Kyiv, the secretary of state added.
The grants fall under the U.S.'s Foreign Military Financing process, which allows the secretary of state to fund defense spending of partner nations through grants or repayable loans executed by the Department of Defense.
In a statement, Mitsotakis said the letter showed Athens was "officially on track to acquire up to 40 latest generation F-35 fighter jets." Greece had asked to buy the Lockheed Martin jets in mid-2022 in a deal worth $8.6 billion.
"At the same time, it will also acquire a very large package of equipment for free, which decisively strengthens all three branches of the Armed Forces, as well as the Hellenic Coast Guard," Mitsotakis said.
Days later, Mitsotakis spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reassure him that "Greece will continue to support Ukraine both bilaterally and within the framework of the EU and NATO."
"I outlined Ukraine's current defense needs, especially in terms of air defense and artillery," Zelensky said about the discussion on X.
Experts have floated the idea before, although they are broadly skeptical that the Excess Defense Articles program can bear the weight of Ukraine's military needs for the foreseeable future.
The program "will not produce enough equipment or money to sustain Ukraine's war effort," said Mark Cancian, a former U.S. colonel who is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in December 2023.
Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in mid-January that Excess Defense Articles was a valid route for breaking the Ukraine aid deadlock in the U.S. but was not an "ideal" option.
"Both Congress and the White House believe the best approach is to pass new supplemental spending legislation," Volker wrote in a piece for the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Deepening uncertainty over the future of U.S. military aid will greatly concern Kyiv as it faces Russian pushes in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions after nearly four months of relentless attacks around the Donetsk town of Avdiivka.
"Without it, simply put, everything that Ukrainians achieved and that we've helped them achieve will be in jeopardy," Blinken said during a press conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
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