Warner: Military equipment will be ‘in transit’ to Ukraine next week if Biden signs bill

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that U.S. long-range missile shipments “will be in transit” to Ukraine next week as long as President Biden signs the foreign aid bill.

“I hope that as soon as the president signs it, we have been informed that there is the president’s signature ensuring that Congress does its job so that these materials are in transit by the end of the week,” Warner said Sunday on the CBS News program “ Face the nation.

“And in that timeline, what will happen is that clearly the morale of the Ukrainians has been great, but it has been undermined in the last few months when they have literally been rationed bullets, eight to 10 bullets a day,” he added. “And when it comes to artillery shells, the Russians are ten to one, you can’t underestimate the courage and determination of the Ukrainians, but if they don’t have the materials, they won’t be able to take this fight to the Russians.”

Warner noted that it is written in the legislation that long-range ATACMS missiles will be delivered to Kiev if the bill passes the Senate and reaches Biden’s desk.

“THE ATACMS- I believe that the administration has been prepared in recent months to prepare or provide ATACMS. It’s written into this legislation,” Warner said.

The House on Saturday approved a long-sought foreign aid package that includes about $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific. It also includes a package of other national security measures, including a potential ban on the TikTok app.

The package now goes to the Senate, which should be approved in the middle of next week.

The package comes after months of warnings from the Biden administration that Ukraine will fight Russian forces without any supplemental aid approved by Congress. Sharp divisions among lawmakers prevented approval of the aid for more than a year, with mostly far-right lawmakers expressing concern about continuing to finance Ukraine.

Congress has not approved an aid package for Ukraine since the end of 2022, and all available funds were exhausted by the end of 2023, leaving Kiev in a dangerous position with the depletion of air defenses and artillery, both crucial in the war.

Russia advanced on the battlefield across eastern Ukraine, taking the town of Avdiivka in February and threatening to take Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region.

Warner argued on Sunday that the US needs to be “prepared” for its own national security interests and pointed to Russia’s links to China, Iran and potentially North Korea.

“I know the terminology used to be Axis of Evil, this could be the Axis of Evil combination of nations in 2024,” he said.