A bipartisan chorus on the Senate Armed Services Committee took the Defense Department’s most senior leaders to task Thursday for what some senators described as a half-hearted approach to helping Ukraine win its war against Russia.
At a hearing on the fiscal 2023 budget, the senators — mostly but not entirely Republicans — applauded the U.S. military’s aid to Ukraine in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began but insisted the Pentagon could do more to turn back the invaders.
The senators questioned why the administration has not yet spent two-thirds of the money Congress appropriated last month for Ukraine in the fiscal 2022 omnibus appropriations act. And they asked why the Defense Department was providing some weapons but not others. The senators also said they wanted the department to move more quickly in getting the anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other systems it is sending to the Ukrainians.
