Biden assures that not renewing aid to Ukraine would be a “Christmas gift” for Putin

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, assured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday that not renewing aid to Ukraine would represent “a Christmas gift” for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Zelensky has been in Washington since Monday to attempt what seems an almost impossible mission: to try to persuade the US Congress to approve, in the remainder of the year, new funds to help his country in the war against Russia. . It faces two colossal obstacles: lack of time—parliamentarians plan to close for vacation this Friday—and lack of interest among the Republican caucus—which insists on linking this assistance to tougher measures on the border with Mexico.

His early visit to the Capitol, his third in a year, highlighted how the political climate in Congress has changed in the last 12 months. In December of last year, when Democrats still controlled both chambers, he was greeted as a hero and delivered a speech to both chambers with lawmakers standing. Now, he was holding a closed-door meeting with the senators—some of the Republicans had hinted that they would not insist—and he was not going to meet with the representatives of the House of Representatives, except for the president of this institution, Mike Johnson, and the Democrat from highest ranking, Hakeem Jeffries.

The White House has asked Congress for $61.4 billion (about €57 billion) in funds for military and economic aid to Ukraine. But Republican lawmakers, who have controlled the House of Representatives since January, have blocked every request for assistance since September. This group insists on conditioning assistance to the invaded country on Democrats approving a tightening of border control and the asylum application system, given the increase in the flow of migrants in the last two years.

These are demands that have nothing to do with war. Zelensky cannot do anything about them, but they greatly complicate his outlook for the fighting. For the Ukrainian president, continuing to receive American aid is essential. It has been this way since the beginning of the Russian invasion: Washington has already contributed more than 100 billion dollars (93 billion euros) to the war effort. But now, especially. Russian troops have relaunched their offensive and are advancing in the east of the country, while Ukraine suffers tens of thousands of casualties in two years of war and the hard blow that the conflict has dealt to its economy.

Some of the Republican lawmakers had even criticized Zelensky's mere presence at the Capitol. Ohio Senator JD Vance, from the hardline conservative wing, had described the visit as a pressure measure to make them feel “guilty” and had declared himself “offended.”

After the session with the senators, the tone of the reactions depended on the party to which those responding belonged. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer — one of the strongest supporters of support for Ukraine — described the meeting as “very powerful.” “President Zelensky made it clear that he needs help, but if he receives it, he can win this war,” he added.

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Jeffries, for his part, stated: “We also talked about values ​​and the fact that we stand with the people of Ukraine because we stand with democracy. We are with freedom. We are with the truth. “We are with good and against evil.”

Criticism from Republicans

On the other side of the political spectrum, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, stressed: “We certainly want to help them. No doubt. We simply have to have a serious agreement on the border. “We are not going to give in on that.” Other Republican legislators, such as Lindsey Graham, from Georgia, called on Biden to be the one to go to the Capitol and negotiate on immigration.

The Republican position has been hardening significantly over the last year. Throughout the first half, opposition to helping Ukraine was only raised among some congressmen from the hard wing of the party. The Senate was almost unanimous, both in the Democratic and Republican groups, in its solidarity with the invaded country.

But budget frictions have been increasing between the two parties, and with them, Republican demands for spending containment. The resistance to granting more funds to the war effort has ceased to be something of the most right-wing Republican faction, and has spread to the more moderate wings. They consider that what was sent does not have sufficient transparency, that the contribution has already been sufficient and that these funds should be used for other causes on American soil. To this, the White House responds that this money is not sent to Ukraine, but is used to purchase weapons and it is the US Defense companies that receive it.

“What the Biden Administration appears to be asking for is billions of additional dollars without proper oversight, without a clear strategy to win, and without any of the answers that I believe should be given to the American people,” Johnson noted after their meeting. with Zelensky.

Now, even Republican legislators who do support aid to Ukraine, which they consider key in the fight against Putin's autocracy, insist that stronger measures must be implemented against illegal immigration.

With entrenched positions and deep divisions between the two parties over immigration reform—an issue on which they have failed to agree for the past three decades—it seems unlikely that lawmakers will be able to reach an agreement before the start of the election. Christmas legislative break. Parliamentarians could choose to delay the vacation, although without the prospect of an agreement on the horizon, that option is not on the table today.

The White House continues its pressure campaign against the clock to obtain approval from legislators. Among his arguments, and those of Zelensky, he maintains that the great beneficiary of the United States withdrawing its support for Ukraine will be Putin. “Russia appears to believe that a military stalemate during the winter will undermine support for Ukraine” and give Moscow the advantage, according to White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

Zelensky spoke in a similar vein this Monday in a speech at the National Defense University, the Pentagon's center for higher education. “If there is anyone who benefits from the pending issues on Capitol Hill, it is only Putin and his henchmen,” he maintained.

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