US President Joe Biden said he expects American aid to Ukraine will continue indefinitely, but argued the assistance to the country has limits after Republican critics slammed the billions in arms shipments and cash transfers authorized by his administration.
Asked whether the aid would continue “uninterrupted,” Biden told reporters “That is my expectation,” going on to respond to charges from some GOP lawmakers that US assistance to Ukraine has been excessive.
“And by the way, we’ve not given Ukraine a blank check. There’s a lot of things Ukraine wants that we didn’t do,” he said on Wednesday, noting that Kiev had requested American aircraft to defend its skies.
“I said ‘No, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to get into a third world war, taking on Russian aircraft and directly engage,” he continued, adding that Washington had also refused certain long-range weapons “because I’m not looking for them to start bombing Russian territory.”