Should America keep funding Ukraine? Live with Emma Ashford, Nick Gillespie, and Zach Weissmueller
Channel: ReasonTV
Date: 2023-01-05

The U.S. government has sent $48 billion in aid—$22.9 billion of it military aid—to Ukraine between the end of January through November 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared in Congress this December to ask for more support before the passage of an omnibus bill containing an additional $45 billion.

This is far money more than has been provided by any other country on the planet but a small fraction of the $796 billion 2022 defense budget, which proponents say makes it a tiny price to pay to provide Ukraine's people with the weapons to defend against a Russian invasion and to weaken a geopolitical foe. Critics say we're spending money we don't have to prolong a war that can't be won.

Join Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller for a live discussion of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the proper role of U.S. foreign policy, and what a realistic end to the conflict might look like with Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center and columnist at Foreign Policy.

00:00 Zelensky's plea for more funding
6:42 What is the American interest in Ukraine?
19:30 The military reality for Russia and Ukraine
24:22 Fallout of the Ukrainian Revolution
36:49 Biden foreign policy
47:06 Why is Russia doing this?
57:08 A path forward for the U.S.