The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has accused President Biden of not being truthful with the American public regarding his administration’s plan for Ukraine, arguing that he has broken his word to Congress by failing to provide a detailed strategy for supporting Ukraine.
Despite Biden’s assertion of support for Ukraine’s freedom in his recent address to the UN General Assembly, the editorial contends that he has refused to be transparent with Congress and the American public about his strategy for achieving victory in Ukraine.
In April, lawmakers passed a $61 billion supplemental budget for Ukraine after lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. A key condition for the budget’s passage was that the Biden administration present a detailed strategy for US support of Ukraine within 45 days of the budget’s enactment, with quarterly updates moving forward.
“Biden knew this commitment was necessary to get aid through Congress, and he signed the bill,” WSJ observed.
However, the strategy was submitted “months after the congressionally-mandated deadline,” the newspaper reported, citing a press release from GOP lawmakers. “Also, and this is typical of the Biden stonewall: The document is entirely classified,” WSJ wrote, highlighting that Congress members are demanding the strategy be made public.
”Don’t count on the Administration following this order before Nov. 5, if it ever does,” the board said.
“A public release might mean that Vice President Kamala Harris would have to explain her own thinking on the war before the election. As long as she doesn’t, and the Administration covers it up, Ms. Harris co-owns Mr. Biden’s record of muddled half measures.”
The Biden administration announced an additional $8 billion in military aid for Kyiv on Thursday, retaining the remaining portion of a large Congressionally-approved allocation scheduled to expire by the end of September. This announcement came immediately after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to the US, where he presented what he called his “victory plan” to his primary benefactor.
According to numerous Western media sources, Kyiv’s aspirations are increasingly clashing with those of its Western backers. Its allies have also consistently rejected its escalating demands to allow the use of Western-supplied arms to strike deep into Russian territory.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has dismissed any possibility of compromise with Russia and ruled out negotiations. Ukrainian officials have suggested that escalating the conflict could force Russia to accept Kyiv’s terms.
Moscow views the conflict as a proxy war and has warned that any attacks utilizing Western long-range weapons provided to Kyiv will be considered an act of war.