New aid pledges for Ukraine fall to lowest levels since the start of the war, report says

Ukraine's allies have dramatically scaled back their pledges of new aid to the country, which have fallen to their lowest level since the start of the war, the German-based Kiel Institute's Ukraine aid tracker showed Thursday.

"The dynamics of support to Ukraine have slowed," the Kiel Institute said, adding that new military, financial and humanitarian aid pledged to Ukraine between August and October 2023 fell almost 90 percent compared with the same period in 2022, reaching its lowest point since the start of the war in February 2022.

The figures come amid signs of growing cracks in Western support for Ukraine as Kyiv's highly-anticipated counteroffensive fails to yield a breakthrough and the world's attention pivots to the Israel-Hamas war.

In the U.S., Senate Republicans blocked additional Ukraine funding in a row with Democrats over U.S. border security.

"If Republicans in the Senate do not get serious very soon about a national security package, Vladimir Putin is going to walk right through Ukraine and right through Europe," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote on advancing the measure was 49 to 51, falling short of the 60 votes needed to move it forward.

In the European Union, negotiations worth $53 billion for Ukraine over the next four years were dragging on.

The Kiel Institute figures showed newly committed aid between August and October 2023 came to just 2.11 billion euros ($2.27 billion), an 87-percent drop year-on-year.

Of 42 donor countries tracked by the study, only 20 had committed new aid packages to Ukraine in the last three months, the smallest share since the start of the war.

"Our figures confirm the impression of a more hesitant donor attitude in recent months," Christoph Trebesch, head of the team producing the Ukraine Support Tracker and director of a research center at the Kiel Institute, said in a statement.

"Ukraine is increasingly dependent on a few core donors that continue to deliver substantial support, like Germany, the U.S., or the Nordic countries. Given the uncertainty over further U.S. aid, Ukraine can only hope for the E.U. to finally pass its long-announced EUR 50 billion support package. A further delay would clearly strengthen Putin's position," Trebesch said.

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