Ex-Ukrainian president says US delay in war aid was 'colossal' waste, let Putin inflict more damage

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving military aid for his country was “a colossal waste of time,” allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to inflict more suffering in the 2-year-old invasion and prolonging the war.

The severe lack of ammunition, which forced outgunned Ukrainian forces to surrender village after village on the front lines, also sowed concern among Ukraine’s other Western allies about Kyiv's prospects in repelling the Russian invasion, Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

That sent a signal to Putin to “attack, ruin infrastructure, rampage all over Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, a pro-European reformer who sought to distance Kyiv from Moscow during his 2005-2010 administration.

“And, of course, this undermines the morale of those in the world who stand with and support Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, who was in Philadelphia to speak at a World Affairs Council event.

The delay “is not fatal” to Ukraine, but it forced Ukraine's war planners to revise the current year's campaign, he said.

Yushchenko has backed the handling of the war by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and has asserted that no Ukrainian politician would give up territory in order to end the war.

Yushchenko said it would be a “big mistake” for the U.S. and Europe to expect such a deal for peace, and would only embolden Putin to attack again.

It would, he said, “give Putin five or seven years to get stronger and then start this misery again.”

On the battlefield, Russia is pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front in eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region and put pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces.

Yushchenko urged Western allies to