(Washington) The American Senate decided Thursday to postpone its end-of-year recess, in order to give itself more time to find an agreement on an envelope for Ukraine, said its leader Chuck Schumer.
Congress, which has released enormous aid for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, is stumbling over the latest extension demanded by Democratic President Joe Biden for Kyiv.
Democrats are in favor of this package of around $61 billion, which includes a military, humanitarian and macroeconomic component.
The Republicans are, apart from a handful of elected officials from the radical right, not totally opposed to it. But in exchange for their vote they demand a major tightening of US immigration policy, which is the subject of fierce negotiations.
In theory, parliamentarians only had until Thursday evening to agree on a text, before work was suspended for the end-of-year holidays.
“The Senate will be in session on Monday to give those negotiating on behalf of the White House and Democrats and Republicans in the Senate time to reach an agreement,” Senator Chuck Schumer finally decided.
Visiting Washington this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged American elected officials to put themselves in working order before the end of the year, assuring that “Putin and his clique of deranged people” were delighted with the “endless negotiations in Capitol.”
PHOTO KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Mitch McConnell, Volodymyr Zelensky and Chuck Schumer
To be definitively adopted, an envelope for Ukraine would however have to be approved by the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, which has already suspended its work for the year.
Elected officials could in theory be recalled from their constituencies if a text were to be put on the table.
But their president, Republican Mike Johnson, has throughout this process been much more wary of the possibility of an agreement.
Since the start of the conflict, the Kremlin has been banking on the decline in Western aid, and any hesitation from Kyiv’s allies reinforces Russia’s belief that its bet will be a winner.
“These gifts may one day stop. And, obviously, it’s coming to an end,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his annual press conference on Thursday.
Conversely, the Ukrainian president wanted to be confident on Thursday, ensuring that he expected “that the American Congress will soon make the crucial decision to continue its vital support to Ukraine”.