‘We Don’t Know’ When US Aid to Ukraine Might End: Kirby

President Joe Biden makes remarks as he meets with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Sept.1, 2021. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

The United States will support Ukraine in defending itself against Russia for “as long as it takes,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday in response to calls from Republican lawmakers to provide a timeline for when that muti-billion-dollar commitment might end.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Kirby reiterated that the conflict, which is about to enter its second year, could end as soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin withdraws his invading forces. He later added that it’s up to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide when is the right time for peace talks.

“President Zelenskyy, as the commander in chief, gets to determine if and when he’s ready to sit down and negotiate with Mr. Putin and under what circumstances,” Kirby told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “What we’re focused on is making sure that he has all the tools to succeed on the battlefield so that if it comes to a negotiation or win he can succeed at the negotiating table as well. But he has to determine what the timing is right and what the circumstances are.”

When pressed on whether there will be more rounds of billion-dollar Ukrainian aid to come, Kirby replied, “We don’t know.”

“We would like to see it end now,” Kirby said. “And certainly, we want to see it end and on terms that are satisfactory to the Ukrainian people and to President Zelenskyy so that they remain a whole, free, sovereign, independent state.”

“Nobody wants to be sitting here a year from now talking about the second anniversary of war,” he added. “But as [President Joe Biden] has said ... we’re going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. And he means that—as long as it takes.”

Kirby’s comments come as some Republican members of Congress expressed concerns about accountability, questioning whether the more than $100 billion in taxpayer dollars sent to Ukraine over the past year is actually being spent in Americans’ best interests.

Earlier this month, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) called out White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young for not being able to deliver a report on the total amount of funding provided to Ukraine. Not one more dollar, he argued, should go to Ukraine until the Biden administration lays out a “clear plan” for ending the conflict in a way that benefits America.

The first-time senator was joined by colleagues Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

“Taken together, the four Ukraine supplemental spending bills passed since the escalation of the Ukraine/Russia conflict in February of 2022 amount to arguably the fourth-largest discretionary appropriations bill,” the senators wrote in a letter (pdf) to Young, demanding her office release by Feb. 7 a “crosscutting report on U.S. government-wide expenditures for Ukraine and ‘countries impacted by the situation in Ukraine’ since February 24, 2022.”

“The report should include a full accounting of total budget authority in this area by appropriations account after transfers and reprogramming, as well as obligations, apportionments, and outlays for each account,” the letter stated.

Congress has so far approved more than $113 billion in aid and military assistance to support Ukraine since Russia launched what Putin called a “special military operation.”

From Feb. 20 to Feb. 22, Biden will travel to Poland, where he will meet leaders of countries on NATO’s eastern front: the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. He is also expected to reiterate in a speech the United States’ commitment to supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”