The White House hopes Congress will approve additional funding for Ukraine by January 2024.
The United States still has not agreed to allocate money to help Ukraine. But there appears to be progress in negotiations between the Republican and Democratic parties. The White House asked the US Congress in October to approve additional funding, including more than $60 billion for Ukraine. But it stalled in the Senate over bipartisan differences over border security with Mexico.
Definitely not this year
The essence of the negotiations between Republicans and Democrats is that the first is ready to vote for money for Ukraine in exchange for changing the US immigration policy.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents Democrats, acknowledged on the Senate floor Monday that negotiations will take time.
“Everyone knows that something needs to be done to fix our immigration system, but we cannot do it by compromising our values. Finding middle ground is very difficult, and both sides must accept that they have to make concession. time,” he said.
At the same time, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suggested that the vote would take place after the recess.
“Our negotiators will be working hard over the December and January holidays, and our goal is to do something as soon as we get back,” Schumer said Wednesday.
At the same time, the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune, said a deal could not be reached until January 2024, pointing out that “Democrats have lost time to the point where a deal is possible” on a border security deal before Christmas.
In a joint statement, Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said negotiators were “making encouraging progress” but “challenging issues remain.”
“I can’t tell you how complicated this issue is. It’s the most complicated piece of American law,” said independent Sen. Kyrsten Cinema.
The White House believes
The White House believes it has made progress during negotiations with Republicans in the US Senate to strengthen anti-migration measures at the southern border, which would allow, perhaps, to approve an additional funding package for Ukraine in January, said John, National Security Coordinator of the strategic communications council at the White House Kirby.
He recalled that the US government has the funds to provide Ukraine with only one package of military aid until the end of the year, but without a decision by Congress there will be no additional money for it. Therefore, it is important that US lawmakers vote as soon as possible.
“Some progress has been achieved (in negotiations), I will not get ahead of myself, we must see how events develop,” he noted.
The White House spokesman stressed that regardless of the allocation of aid to Ukraine, the fighting there will not stop, and the Russians will continue offensive operations, especially in the east in the Avdievka area, which will accelerate after freeze the ground in late January – early February.
“We want to get this funding as soon as possible. It looks like it will be in January, but the sooner the better,” Kirby added.
How much money is left?
Earlier, the Pentagon Financial Inspector Michael McCord, in a letter to the heads of the relevant committees of the US Congress, warned that the department has until December 30 to finance military aid to Ukraine.
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate defense policy and appropriations committees, McCord indicated that the Department of Defense is now spending the last $1.07 billion to buy new weapons and equipment to replace those decommissioned and sent to Ukraine .
“Once these funds are expended, the Department will exhaust the funds available to us to provide security assistance to Ukraine,” the Pentagon official wrote.
He clarified that in the absence of a decision by the US Congress on additional funding, the Ministry of Defense will finance the replacement of another military aid package until December 30.
The last such package, we recall, was announced by the United States on December 12, its value was $200 million.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.