President Biden blames the “absurd” failure of US lawmakers to approve emergency aid to Ukraine for the fall of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka to Russia over the weekend, raising the possibility that other cities may fall as well. It warns that there is.
Mr. Biden, 81, came on Saturday, the same day Ukraine was forced to withdraw from the eastern city after months of fighting to maintain control, handing the Kremlin one of its most important recent victories. “There’s so much at stake,” he told reporters.
“The idea that we’re running out of ammunition, that we’re going to walk away, I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s unethical.” I talked about what wasn’t there.
“So I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need,” Biden vowed, speaking not far from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Biden added that he was not confident that other Ukrainian cities would not fall into Russian hands before Congress approved additional aid.
“It’s not. It’s not. No one can be,” he said. “The Ukrainian people fought very bravely and heroically.”
He also said he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and tried to reassure him that Congress would eventually greenlight the aid.
“I spoke with Mr. Zelensky this afternoon and told him I am confident we can get the funding,” Biden said. “So much is at stake.”
Adrian Watson, a spokesman for Biden’s National Security Council, said bluntly on Saturday that Avdiivka’s ouster is “the cost of Congressional inaction.”
President Zelenskiy met with U.S. officials at the Munich Security Conference in Germany over the weekend, where Ukraine’s plight was at the center of discussion.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who attended the summit, recalled that President Zelenskiy did not specifically blame the United States for the fall of Avdiivka, but expressed serious concerns about aid. .
“Mr. Zelenskiy, of course, did not blame himself for his current situation or for what happened.” [Saturday] Regarding the delays that are occurring,” Turner said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.
“He indicated that he was certainly concerned that delays could cause delays in getting weapons to Ukraine.”
Biden asked Congress in August to replenish aid to the war-torn allies, but Congress has been deadlocked for more than seven months over whether and how to do so.
The Senate passed a $95 billion package last week that would allocate about $60 billion to Ukraine, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has indicated the House will not take up the measure.
Prime Minister Johnson has called for any aid to Ukraine to be combined with increased U.S. border security. But he previously declared that the Senate’s bipartisan border security package would be “dead on arrival” in the House.
The situation poses significant political complications to the bill’s push, as Republicans are divided over whether to re-expand aid to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said funding for Ukraine is drying up while Kiev grapples with dwindling artillery forces on the battlefield against the Russian invaders.
On February 24, Ukraine will mark the second anniversary of Russia’s bloody invasion.
Mr Johnson claims he has sought a meeting with Mr Biden to resolve differences over additional funding, but the White House has refused to do so.
“What is there to negotiate?” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week. “He’s negotiating with himself.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) It appears that the possibility of an expulsion petition remains open, meaning that MPs could try to bypass Mr Johnson and bring the bill to a vote.
