White House representative of the National Security Council John Kirby says that the US has run out of money for new military aid to send to Ukraine and won’t get more unless Congress approves the draft $61bn package .

Kirby said that there are no available funds for new military aid packages to Ukraine after President Joe Biden signed the last military assistance package for Kyiv in December. Additional security assistance requires congressional approval, Kirby emphasised.

The end of US military aid will be a serious problem for Ukraine and comes just as Ukraine faces the biggest missile barrage since the start of the war just under two years ago.

Moreover, Ukraine is running out money again as Ukraine’s 2024 budget has a $29bn funding gap in it, part of which was supposed to be covered by US aid. Western financial and military aid has become snarled in internal wrangling and an EU €50bn package is also caught up in internal wrangling.

To solve the funding problem, the US is pushing its EU allies to seize the $300bn of Central Bank of Russia (CBR)’s reserves, most of which has been frozen in Europe. However, as there is no legal precedent and technically taking the money would be theft under current rules, the leading EU member states as well as the European Central Bank (ECB) are against the plan.

Holding only about $4bn of frozen CBR funds, the US has little exposure to the repercussions of seizing Russia’s money.

Kyiv is also pushing for the West to seize Russia’s money. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the same day that a key task for 2024 is to transfer Russian assets towards the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Shmyhal expressed optimism that the Western allies would find a formula that would allow the Russian money to be used to aid Ukraine. He noted that the US, the EU, and other nations are making significant progress in addressing this issue.