Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that Congress could pass additional funding for Ukraine ahead of the transition to a Republican-led Congress and President-elect Trump's administration. He said there is. , likely to oppose further aid to Kyiv.
Mr. Kaine said that any package approved by the Senate would likely face major hurdles in passing the Republican-controlled House, which opposes additional aid and is skeptical about military costs. He said that an increasing number of Republican lawmakers want to postpone the decision by President Trump. He promised to end the war with Ukraine.
“It's an opportunity, an opportunity. I'm not talking about a possibility, I'm talking about an opportunity,” Kaine said of more funding for Ukraine.
“At the end of the year there will be all sorts of battles over priorities here, but just knowing the current makeup of the Senate, the Senate has a chance, but the House is going to be tough.”
Kaine said further funding paths would likely be part of a spending bill.
But Senate Republicans are unlikely to be willing to push for more funding to Ukraine.
“The situation is clearly in a state of flux,” said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“President Trump says he'll figure it out. He has a habit of doing what he says he's going to do, and now it's important that everyone gives him the space to do it.” “I think so,” he said about the war in Ukraine.
Also, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was formally nominated by President Trump to be his secretary of state on Wednesday, suggested that funding to Ukraine was not an immediate concern.
“Let's wait until we have a new government in place before we judge that…we have to fund the government again next month,” he said.
The Biden administration has an estimated $6 billion in funding available for Ukraine, to be disbursed by January 20, but it is still trying to balance the military equipment it sends to Ukraine with needs on the battlefield and inventory available from the Pentagon. I'm taking it.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian military has faced tremendous challenges on the front lines against the Russian invasion, battling manpower shortages and fatigue from more than two and a half years of war. There is.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on the Biden administration to allow the Ukrainian military to use long-range missiles provided by the West to attack targets inside Russia, but President Biden has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin Most have resisted this, citing concerns about escalation.
