US Defense Budget for 2025 does not provide for extension of lend-lease to Ukraine – Markarova

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2025 (NDAA) approved by the U.S. House of Representatives does not provide for the extension of Lend-Lease for Ukraine.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova announced this on Facebook, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"It should be noted that this year's NDAA bill, approved by the Senate, contained a provision on extending the term of the Lend-Lease Act to protect democracy in Ukraine, and the Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. actively advocated for it, but the bill approved by the House of Representatives did not contain such a provision. The corresponding provision is not included in the consolidated text of the bill," she said.

Markarova noted that the embassy continues to actively work to preserve this mechanism, which, in particular, is provided for in the bipartisan and bicameral bill "Stand with Ukraine Act".

She also reported that the U.S. defense budget for 2025 for Ukraine contains the following main provisions:

continuation of the ban on the use of any funds for actions that could lead to the recognition of russian sovereignty over the occupied regions of Ukraine;

the U.S. Secretary of Defense is instructed to study the possibility of creating a center of excellence to support the development and improvement of weapons systems based on artificial intelligence, among the functions of such a center is to promote cooperation between the Pentagon and foreign partners, including Ukraine, to identify best practices, instructions, standards and benchmarks;

the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury are instructed to submit a report to the Senate and House of Representatives committees on the financing of international terrorism by the russian federation.

The next step should be the approval of this law by the U.S. Senate, which is expected next week.

At the same time, Markarova noted that funding for the "Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative" (USAI) for the 2025 fiscal year was provided for in last year's NDAA in the amount of USD 300 million.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in May 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law on Lend-Lease for Ukraine on Victory Day, which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in late April. Lend-Lease for Ukraine did not work in 2022.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump admits to reducing U.S. aid to Ukraine.