Recent news reporting has highlighted that the President directed nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine be frozen. That funding has since been released. But that got us thinking. How much funding has Congress appropriated to Ukraine since Russian invaded Crimea in 2014? 

Take a look at the chart below:

Fiscal year 2015: The appropriations bills that eventually came together as the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act” for FY15 were already making their way through the Congressional process when, in August of 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean region of Ukraine.

That Crimea action led to a $175 million appropriation for a new initiative, the so-called European Reassurance Initiative (ERI). As the name implies, ERI was not just for Ukraine but meant to support the “…Governments of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, including the provision of training, equipment, and logistical supplies, support and services…” ERI became a larger program, funded through the off-budget Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) accounts at the Department of Defense.

Fiscal Year 2016: With a known total of at least $908 million, FY16 was the fiscal “high water mark” for spending dedicated to Ukraine in the years we reviewed. At DoD, but separate from ERI, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative was formed and given $250 million for many of the same efforts as identified in ERI but notably including “lethal weapons of a defensive nature.” In FY16 we were also able to identify spending appropriated for Ukraine in the State Department. Tucked away under “Independent States of the Former Soviet Union” was a whopping $658 million in assistance for Ukraine. Also at the State Department was a total amount in loan guarantees for Jordan, Ukraine and Tunisia of $275 million. Given the way appropriations acts are written, it is not always possible to specifically identify loan guarantees under the State Department’s Economic Support Fund. And in this case there is no breakdown we can find in the public law to say how much of that total amount was for Ukraine. While not a direct appropriation, loan guarantees are still a form of U.S. support because it reduces borrowing costs for Ukraine and puts the U.S. on the hook if Ukraine fails to repay. That’s a known total of direct assistance of more than $908 million. We can’t say with certainty how much of that $275 million in loan guarantees was specific to Ukraine.

Fiscal year 2017: Things ramped up significantly in FY17 with $150 million from the Pentagon and more than $410 million in direct assistance from the State Department under a program labeled “Assistance for Ukraine.” Again, the U.S. committed to loan guarantees for Ukraine, but the total is unspecified. That’s a known total in FY17 of more than $560 million.

Fiscal Year 2018: Another jump in funding with $200 million from the Pentagon for direct assistance to Ukraine and more than $420 million from the State Department. Again, an unknown amount was promised for loan guarantees. The known total is $620.7 million in U.S. funds for Ukraine in FY18.

Fiscal Year 2019: $250 million from the Department of Defense and more than $445 million from State Department funds. Even without knowing the level of loan guarantees, that’s more than $695 million for Ukraine. It is some portion of the FY19 funds that were placed on hold until very recently. We also note that the accompanying language changes in FY19 from “lethal weapons of a defensive nature” to “lethal assistance.”

Altogether, since the Russian incursion into Ukraine in the summer of 2014, the United States has appropriated up to $2.9 billion for direct assistance to Ukraine.