Biden blames Congress for Ukraine's first defeat in months

Moscow has won its first major battlefield victory in Ukraine since Bakhmut was taken in May 2023 and President Joe Biden is blaming Congress and its unwillingness to pass a new round of security funding for the defeat. 

On February 17th, Ukraine announced its withdrawal from the defensive strongpoint city of Avdiivka, a defeat that the Biden administration laid at the feet of U.S. lawmakers who have been reluctant to approve new aid for Kyiv. 

“This is the cost of congressional inaction,” National Security Council Adrienne Watson explained according to a report from the New York Times. “The Ukrainians continue to fight bravely, but they are running low on supplies.”

The U.S. Senate has passed a $60.1 billion dollar emergency funding package but it is still unclear if lawmakers in the House will approve the security aid for Kyiv. Speaker of the House Mike Johson has said he won't put the aid up for a vote. 

“The Republican-led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill,” Johnson stated at a press conference on February 14th following a closed-door meeting with House Republicans according to the Associated Press. 

However, it wasn’t just Biden’s administration that came down hard on Congress, Biden himself blamed U.S. lawmakers for Ukraine's first defeat in 2024 while he was speaking with President Volodymyr Zelensky about the loss. 

A White House readout of Biden’s call with Zelensky stated the Ukrainian Armed Forces were compelled to pull out from Avdiivka after troops had to ration ammunition due to “dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction.”

The readout also noted that the withdrawal from Avdiivka was Mocosow’s first victory in months and asked lawmakers to “pass the national security supplemental funding bill to resupply Ukrainian forces.”

Zelensky also blamed Ukraine’s retreat from Avdiivka on the country’s lack of munitions while speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 17th, and he called on Western nations for more assistance. 

“Our dear friends are unfortunately keeping Ukraine in an artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in artillery and long-range capabilities . . . This self-weakening of democracy over time undermines our joint results,” Zelensky said, according to The Telegraph.