United States: The International Military Aid Fund for Ukraine, which is run by the UK, has come under fire for taking too long to deliver the promised money.

Bidders hoping to secure military aid contracts through the scheme are frustrated by how slowly the British Ministry of Defense is reviewing their applications, according to an article in The Guardian on Monday.

Of the £520 million ($624 million) pledged to the fund by Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Lithuania, only £200 million ($240 million) has been allocated so far, according to the newspaper.

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Some participants worry that because of the delay, some weapons may not reach the frontlines in Ukraine until the summer.

The fund was initially introduced in August as a "flexible low-bureaucratic fund" that would fund, equip and train the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The project's overseer, the British Ministry of Defence, has acknowledged that awarding the contract is "inevitably time consuming."

The Guardian reports that more than 1,500 suppliers are believed to have submitted bids totaling more than £27 billion. However, some bidders claim that the fund's secretariat, which one supplier claimed was staffed by only two people, has been exceeded by the volume of proposals.

Although a large team is reviewing the bids, a British Ministry of Defense source who spoke to the Guardian admitted that the high level of interest was a "complicating factor".

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The ministry source emphasized that the funds should never have been awarded through a traditional competitive bidding process, and that the Defense Ministry wanted to ensure that it was handled properly to benefit Ukraine.

"To ensure the success of the first round, we fine-tuned the potential buyout from the fund. Naturally, it took time," the source said.

According to reports, Britain is pressuring Ukraine to join talks with Moscow by providing Kiev's military with more advanced Western weapons as well as security assurances from NATO.

The Wall Street Journal reports that France and Germany, which have already advised Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to make a "difficult decision", have backed the British proposal.

Moscow has repeatedly urged the West to stop supplying arms to Ukraine, claiming that doing so would only prolong the conflict and result in more deaths.

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Russia has also claimed that the US and its NATO allies are now directly involved in the conflict as a result of increased Western military aid to Kiev.