U.S. aid to Ukraine surpasses most world military budgets

The $113 billion U.S. assistance to Ukraine has exceeded the annual military budgets of all other countries except China and the United States.

The passage of the $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill grants Ukraine $45 Billion in military and economic assistance, bringing the total to $113 Billion.

The Quincy Institute’s Ben Freeman and William Hartung cataloged some of the ways that aid to Ukraine has exceeded many other of our own government’s expenditures and even other countries’ entire military budgets.

According to the Quincy Institute, aid to Ukraine was eclipsed by:

In one year, American aid to any country since “at least” the Vietnam War Russia’s 2023 $84 billion military budget Every country’s military budget except for China and the United States American aid for communities affected by drought, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, and natural disasters — by $4 billion

American aid to Ukraine almost matches the total baseline spending of both the State Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.

It is nearly as large as the $118 trillion “the United States will spend on medical care for all U.S. military veterans.”

If Ukraine were an American country, it would be ranked 11th in terms the amount of federal funds it receives.

“In other words, in the past 12 months Ukraine has been awarded more U.S. taxpayer dollars than 40 U.S. states,” Hartung and Freeman noted.

Congressional leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) remain vigorously in favor of aid to Ukraine, despite Americans’ increasing skepticism of entanglement in Ukraine.

Morning Consult poll found A majority of registered Republican voters (48%) want to reduce foreign aid. 48% of respondents also wanted to decrease foreign aid.