By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has sent Congress a classified report on its strategy for the war in Ukraine, three sources said on Monday, months after a June deadline mandated in a multibillion-dollar spending bill lawmakers passed in April.
A congressional aide said the long-awaited report had reached lawmakers on Monday and they had not yet had a chance to review it. Two other sources, requesting anonymity to discuss a classified matter, confirmed that it had been delivered. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress has approved nearly $175 billion of aid and military assistance for Ukraine and allied nations in the 2-1/2 years since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
After months of delay, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a $95 billion supplemental spending bill in April that included $61 billion in funding for Ukraine, as well as billions for Israel, civilians in conflict zones around the world and to “counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific.
As part of that bill, Congress asked the Biden administration to submit a detailed strategy for Ukraine by early June.
Biden’s support for Ukraine is backed by Democrats and many Republicans in Congress. Some Republicans, however, have criticized his administration for restricting how Ukraine can use U.S. equipment, for example by refusing to supply weapons that could strike targets deep inside Russia, for fear it would escalate the conflict.
Weeks after the deadline passed with no report, some members of Congress said they were frustrated and would consider blocking further funding.
In a statement emailed to Reuters in late August about the report, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he supported assisting Ukraine but did not do so blindly.
“Since the earliest days of (Russian President Vladimir) 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,” Risch said.
“When they did not respond to our requests, we mandated in law that a strategy be sent to Congress, but the deadline has passed with no response. President Biden and VP (Kamala) 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.”
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)