The US House of Representatives has passed a $895 billion defense spending bill for 2025, but it does not include an extension of the lend-lease act for Ukraine. The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act was passed in May 2022 and expired in September 2023 without being used.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, stated that Ukrainian diplomats are continuing to work on reintroducing the lend-lease act, which would allow the US President to loan or lease arms to Ukraine while bypassing congressional red tape. A bipartisan group of senators proposed to reintroduce the lend-lease act through fiscal year 2026.
The defense bill also does not include funds for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) in 2025, as those were already provided in the previous spending bill. The USAI is a Pentagon-led program for supplying arms to Ukraine through contracts with US defense companies.
However, the bill includes a ban on using funds for actions that could lead to recognition of Russian occupation in Ukraine and requests an inter-departmental report on Moscow‘s financing of international terrorism.
Additionally, the bill proposes establishing a Center of Excellence for developing AI-based weapons in cooperation with foreign partners, including Ukraine. However, support for Ukraine may face increasing challenges as the Republican Party has gained control over the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, Hungary did not discuss any Christmas truce or prisoner swap with Ukraine, despite claims by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected his proposal. The Ukrainian presidential adviser stated that Hungary did not approach Ukraine regarding the proposal and did not warn about its contacts with Moscow.
Ukraine has been working on releasing prisoners and is discussing a major prisoner swap by the end of the year, but denies any contact with Budapest on the matter.