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McConnell lays into Pentagon for sitting on $400M in Ukraine aid

McConnell lays into Pentagon for sitting on 0M in Ukraine aid

Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who now chairs the powerful Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is tasking the Pentagon with handling $400 million in congressionally authorized military aid to Ukraine.

And he singles out his undersecretary for defense policy, Elbridge Colby, as the most likely obstacle to delivering the aid that Republican lawmakers supported last year.

“Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for each of the next two years for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Appropriators fully funded this authorization for fiscal year 2026 with overwhelming support,” McConnell wrote in an op-ed published in The Washington Post.

“But the Ukrainian aid we transferred months ago is now gathering dust in the Pentagon,” he added. “When the Senate takeovers sought an explanation from the Department’s policy bureau, led by Under Secretary Elbridge Colby, they were stonewalled.”

The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act approved by Congress for fiscal year 2026 provides Ukraine with $400 million in 2026 and another $400 million in 2027 through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

The purpose of the fund was to pay for American companies’ production of high-priority weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

McConnell noted in his column that, according to media reports, Colby decided to suspend arms shipments to Ukraine last year.

“This does not appear to be a first for Colby. Last year, it was reported that he was behind the decision to suspend arms shipments to Kiev — a decision that caught President Donald Trump ‘flat-footed,’ one source said,” he wrote.

“Colby also ruled that security assistance to Ukraine and America’s NATO allies in the Baltics was a ‘waste’ and removed these long-standing efforts from his fiscal 2026 budget request,” he said.

McConnell said the Republican majority in Congress brought back the funding because they see it as an important investment in national security.

“Support for Ukraine in the first two years of full-scale war led to billions of dollars of investment in the US defense industrial base,” he wrote.

Although McConnell viewed President Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “lackluster,” he argued that members of the Senate Appropriations Committee were able to direct additional funding to the Biden administration to increase production capacity for critical munitions and components.

McConnell also criticized Defense Department leadership for limiting the number of U.S. advisors allowed to travel to Ukraine, arguing that the policy limited the Pentagon’s ability to learn about battlefield innovations.

“I know…officers willing to apply the Ukrainians’ counter-drone and electronic warfare lessons to the U.S. Army’s preparations for future conflicts. But they cannot learn from the war if they cannot properly observe the war,” he wrote.

“The Pentagon nevertheless continues the Biden administration’s policy of significantly limiting the number of military instructors authorized to assist Ukraine and witness the conflict up close,” he added.

Meanwhile, McConnell said America’s enemies like Iran are eager to learn new tactics from Ukraine’s battlefields.

“They are learning and adapting. Iran has made that painfully clear in its attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in the Persian Gulf that are deploying drone capabilities that Russia has developed with lethal effect,” he wrote. “North Korea has likewise become involved, sending troops not to aid Russia but for tactical experience and closer alignment with Moscow.”

McConnell warned that China was “undoubtedly monitoring events in Ukraine” as it prepared its military investments and plans.

But he complained that “the Pentagon still does not explain to us why it does not mandate and enforce modest Ukrainian investments.”

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