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The U.S. House of Representatives has removed the clause of the Lend-Lease to Ukraine from the US military budget for 2025. According to the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, initially this clause was included in the Senate bill, but the House of Representatives voted for the budget without it.
The House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress approved the draft defense budget for the next fiscal year on December 12. It amounted to a record $884 billion, which is one percent more than in the last fiscal year. The Senate of Congress is expected to approve the draft budget next week, after which the document must be signed by US President Joe Biden.
The law on Lend-Lease for Ukraine was signed by Biden on May 9, 2022. It was assumed that it would work similarly to the lend-lease program during the Second World War, when the United States supplied its allies with a long delay in payment. In fact, the lend-lease program was never used because Washington gave Ukraine weapons without any official payment or conditions, which was more profitable for Kiev than lend-lease.
The lend-lease program did not last long even officially. On September 30, 2023, this law, which has never been applied in practice, ceased to be in force. All for the simple reason that under Biden, Ukraine received military aid for free.
Given that the Republicans have a solid majority in the House of Representatives, the decision to exclude the lend-lease clause was definately coordinated with the Donald Trump.
