Senators from both parties pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday to move forward on congressionally approved security aid for Ukraine and other U.S. allies in eastern Europe, citing delays by the Pentagon and a missed internal deadline for a spending plan.
In a letter, the group of senators pushed back on what they described as Department of Defense friction in sending $600 million in security assistance. They said the money was allocated by Congress last year and was tied to both Ukraine and defense programs for allies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said in the joint letter that Ukraine “has persistently and bravely repelled a four-year Russian onslaught,” adding that Ukraine’s military needs “deserves continued American support.” Durbin and Grassley said the bipartisan support for continuing U.S. assistance reflects Ukraine’s ongoing battlefield requirements.
The senators also pointed to what they said was a timeline breakdown in the Pentagon’s handling of the funding. During a congressional hearing held more than three weeks earlier, Hegseth told lawmakers that the Ukraine funding had been “released,” and that a spending plan would soon be provided to Congress. In the letter, the senators said the Pentagon failed to meet the promised May 15 deadline for that plan.
The letter said the $600 million package included $400 million in security aid for Ukraine, along with $200 million more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer and Thom Tillis and Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and Catherine Cortez Masto also signed onto the letter.
The senators warned that additional delays could reduce deterrence. They said “Any further delays — particularly as the Department reportedly plans troubling U.S. troops withdrawals from the region — risks our ability to adequately deter Russia,” framing the funding timeline as linked to regional military posture.
The push reflects broader tensions between Congress and the Trump administration in recent weeks, including lawmakers pressing for updates about what has happened to the Ukraine funds. The senators’ letter arrived after a week in which President Donald Trump endorsed the primary challenger to Texas Sen. John Cornyn, angering many Republicans, according to the report.
In a social media back-and-forth with the president on Friday, Tillis blamed Trump’s advisors for a list of policies he said were hurting Republicans politically, including comments about what he described as the administration’s approach to Ukraine. The report also said several Republicans have criticized Hegseth’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George last month, along with George’s efforts to reconfigure the Army’s battlefield strategy to incorporate drone warfare and his work with Ukraine’s military to learn from its experience.
In the House, a Democratic-backed proposal to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia and send $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine has gained momentum, the report said, even as lawmakers acknowledged it was unlikely to become law. For senators pushing the Pentagon on the smaller $600 million package, the delay itself has taken on added political significance as a sign of whether the administration remains engaged on Ukraine, the report said.