US President Joe Biden on Sunday said that US aid to Ukraine would keep flowing for now as he sought to reassure allies of continued US financial support for the war effort.
However, time is running out, the president said in a warning to the US Congress.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow America’s support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room after Congress averted a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding package late on Saturday that dropped assistance for Ukraine in the battle against Russia.
Photo: Reuters
“We have time, not much time, and there’s an overwhelming sense of urgency,” he said, adding that the funding bill lasts only until mid-November.
Biden urged Congress to negotiate an aid package as soon as possible.
“The vast majority of both parties — Democrats and Republicans, Senate and House — support helping Ukraine and the brutal aggression that is being thrust upon them by Russia,” Biden said. “Stop playing games, get this done.’’
However, many lawmakers say that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war grinds on.
Republican resistance to the aid has been gaining momentum and the next steps are ahead, given the resistance from the hard-right flank.
While US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has begun a process to potentially consider legislation providing additional Ukraine aid, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces a more difficult task in keeping the commitment he made over the objections of nearly half of his Republican majority.
US Representative Matt Gaetz said he would try to remove McCarthy from his leadership position.
Gaetz, a longtime McCarthy nemesis, said in broadcast interviews that McCarthy was in “brazen, material breach” of agreements he made with House Republicans in January when he ran for speaker.
“So be it. Bring it on. Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing,” McCarthy said in response.
McCarthy told CBS’ Face the Nation that he supported “being able to make sure Ukraine has the weapons that they need,” but that his priority was security at the US-Mexico border.
“I firmly support the border first,” he said. “So we’ve got to find a way that we can do this together.”
By omitting additional Ukraine aid from the measure to keep the government running, McCarthy closed the door on a Senate package that would have funneled US$6 billion to Ukraine, roughly one-third of what has been requested by the White House.
The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the stopgap measure, with members of both parties abandoning the increased aid in favor of avoiding a costly government shutdown.
Elsewhere, new British Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps stressed his support of Ukraine, suggesting that British military training of Ukrainian soldiers, which takes place at bases in the UK, could move into western Ukraine.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Shapps said he was in discussions with the British Army about “eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quick to rule out speculation of an imminent deployment of British soldiers to Ukraine.
Shapps’ suggestion was not for the “here and now,” Sunak told reporters, but a possibility “for the long term.”
“There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict. That’s not what’s happening,” Sunak said.
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