McConnell criticizes Pentagon over $400m

Mitch McConnell publicly accused the Pentagon of sitting on $400 million in military aid for Ukraine that Congress approved months ago. (thehill.com) The Kentucky Republican, now chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, wrote that the money is “collecting dust” and said Senate appropriators were “stonewalled” when they asked for an explanation. (thehill.com) McConnell pointed to Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, as the likely obstacle. He wrote that Republican majorities authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative in fiscal 2026 and another $400 million in 2027, and appropriators fully funded the first tranche. (thehill.com) (atlanticcouncil.org) That program does not ship weapons from existing Pentagon stockpiles. It pays American defense companies to produce new weapons and equipment for Ukraine, which means delays can slow contracts before anything reaches the battlefield. (atlanticcouncil.org) (thehill.com) McConnell also said Colby had previously backed suspending arms shipments to Kyiv and had removed aid to Ukraine and the Baltic allies from the fiscal 2026 budget request. Congress restored that funding. (thehill.com) The clash is one of the clearest public breaks between congressional Republican hawks and the Trump administration on Ukraine this year. The 2026 defense law’s Ukraine money was already far smaller than the nearly $14 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding Congress approved in the April 2024 supplemental. (atlanticcouncil.org) At the same time, the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv is leaving. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Julie Davis, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, will retire in June 2026; Politico reported the departure creates a vacancy as relations between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy remain strained. (politico.com) (cbc.ca) The Financial Times, cited by Reuters, reported Davis was leaving over differences with Trump’s Ukraine policy. The State Department disputed that account and called it “false.” (usnews.com) (politico.com) In Europe, Lithuania said it would use its upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union to help push a full ban on Russian oil imports. That comes after the European Union’s latest sanctions package left a broader maritime-services ban on Russian oil on hold pending Group of Seven coordination. (ukrinform.net) (euronews.com) McConnell’s complaint is about one $400 million line item, but it lands in a week when the arguments over Ukraine are no longer about whether support exists on paper. They are about who is willing to move it. (thehill.com) (politico.com)