PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the US Congress in approving military aid to his country was “a colossal waste of time”, allowing the Russian President Vladimir Putin inflict more suffering on the 2 year invasion and prolonging the war.
The serious lack of ammunition, which forced the unarmed Ukrainian forces to surrender village after village on the front line, It also sowed concern among Ukraine’s other Western allies about Kiev’s prospects for repelling the Russian invasion, Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.
That sent a signal to Putin to “attack, ruin infrastructure, attack all of Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, a pro-European reformer who sought to distance Kiev from Moscow during his 2005-2010 administration.
“And, of course, this undermines the morale of those in the world who support and support Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, who was in Philadelphia to speak at a World Affairs Council event.
The delay is “not fatal” for Ukraine, but it has forced Ukraine’s war planners to review the current year’s campaign, he said.
Yushchenko supported the Ukrainian president’s conduct of the war Volodymyr Zelenskyyand stated that no Ukrainian politician would give up territory to end the war.
Yushchenko said it would be a “big mistake” for the US and Europe to hope for such a peace deal and would only encourage Putin to strike again.
That would, he said, “give Putin five or seven years to get stronger and then start this misery again.”
On the battlefield, Russia is advancing with a land offensive that opened a new front in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine and put pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces.
Yushchenko urged Western allies to make political decisions more quickly to help Ukraine in a fight that soldiers wage every day, 24 hours a day.
“The front line works 24 hours a day, they don’t take vacations,” he said.
After US aid was approved last month, President Joe Biden said he was immediately running much needed weaponry for Ukraine when he sanctioned the law a $61 billion war aid measure to Ukraine. Without it, CIA Director Bill Burns said, Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.
Yet, just small batches of US military aid have begun arriving at the front line, according to Ukrainian military commanders, who have said it will be at least two months before supplies meet Kiev’s needs to hold the line.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that the Biden administration was “really trying to accelerate the pace” of US arms shipments to Ukraine, following months-long delays by Congress. “The level of intensity displayed right now in terms of moving things is a 10 out of 10,” he said.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken arrived in Kiev on Tuesday on an unannounced diplomatic mission to assure Ukraine that it has American support.
Biden and Ukraine’s allies in Congress pressed for months to overcome resistance from far-right Republican legislators in the House over renewed American support for repealing The invasion of Russia.
The final action only came after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson overtook opposition last month to bring aid to Ukraine to a vote.
The funding impasse dates back to August, when Biden made his first request for emergency spending for Ukraine. Since Russian invasion in February 2022the US has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine.
Yushchenko acknowledged the enormous losses Ukraine has suffered in more than two years of war, costing lives every day and forcing normal Ukrainians to join the fight. But he said he was ashamed to hear arguments about “war fatigue” and that this should not be an excuse to stop fighting.
“Every day we pay with our lives,” Yushchenko said. “The lives of children and women, the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Our infrastructure is being destroyed every day.”
Despite his harsh criticism of the US delay in approving the latest military aid, Yushchenko acknowledged that Ukraine managed to recapture a significant part of occupied territory thanks to Western support.
More gains can be made if allies are united, Yushchenko said.
“For Putin, the main geopolitical challenge is freedom and democracy. And today he is using all available resources to show that the Western world is weak” and incapable of uniting, Yushchenko said.
He said he believes Ukraine’s victory is inevitable, given the sacrifice of the country’s citizens to fight, and sees the war as a larger, defining battle to defend democracy from tyranny and imperialism.
Yushchenko came to power as leader of the popular opposition in the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, defeating Putin’s preferred candidate. As president, he pushed adamantly to bring Ukraine out of Moscow’s shadow and integrate more closely with Western Europe.
But his presidency was marked by political conflicts that paralyzed the government and prevented the approval of any of the promised reforms. He lost power amid the collapse of the Ukrainian economy during the 2008 global financial crisis and tensions with Russia, highlighted by a conflict over gas prices.
Yushchenko survived dioxin poisoning during his 2004 election campaign, and several former Russian intelligence officials have accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning.
The poisoning forced Yushchenko to temporarily abandon campaign activities in the middle of Ukraine’s hotly contested presidential race and severely disfigured his face. But it also earned him the sympathy of many Ukrainians. He said he subsequently underwent more than two dozen surgeries.
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Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
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