President Joe Biden’s administration and senior Republicans sought to reassure Ukraine that US military aid won’t stop after the House of Representatives omitted assistance funding from a short-term spending bill.
The decision to scuttle the Ukraine aid — at least for now — is a blow to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who last week met with Biden and lawmakers and personally pleaded for new weapons systems, including F-16 fighter jets and longer-range ATACMS missiles.
While support for Ukraine remains strong particularly in the Senate, the House on Saturday passed a bipartisan bill to avert a US government shutdown that omitted $6 billion in funding for the country’s fight against a Russian invasion. The assistance could be supplied in a separate bill down the road.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy indicated he would try to tie the aid to US border policy changes that Democrats oppose.
Senator Jim Risch, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Saturday he’s confident that Ukraine funding will be maintained and there’s “absolutely no question about” Republican support for it.
“It is not the end of the of the appropriation process,” he said. “The Ukraine funding will be in at the end.”
Lawmakers in both parties who support the Ukraine funding said it could be handled separately. A White House official welcomed the House-passed bill and said the Biden administration expects Ukraine aid to be handled separately.
“No one should take this as a message that somehow there’s a reduction in the commitment that the United States made to Ukraine,” Risch said.
Continued backing from the US and its allies is vital for Zelenskiy as his forces struggle to advance against Russian troops still occupying about 17% of his territory, fueling doubts about his ability to oust them completely.
Cracks have begun to emerge in the support for Kyiv, with Poland, a key ally, this week threatening to suspend arms deliveries in a dispute over grain shipments. At the same time, Zelenskiy’s efforts to win over major countries of the developing world at the United Nations General Assembly last week yielded few visible results.
McCarthy, who has asked for accountability of money that has already gone to Ukraine, told reporters last week that he rejected Zelenskiy’s request to address Congress again because lawmakers didn’t have time in a “busy week.”
Hardliners in McCarthy’s party have said the US would be better served directing more money to the US military to better prepare for any direct fight against China or Russia.
McCarthy’s decision to defy ultraconservatives on the short-term spending bill could free him from the grip of the far right.