The American Senate validated on Tuesday a new envelope releasing 95 billion dollars for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but its final adoption is still dependent on the goodwill of Donald Trump’s supporters in the House – who refuse as it stands. examine the text.
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“We can no longer afford to wait,” urged Joe Biden, calling on Republicans in the lower house of Congress to approve the text “quickly”.
In the middle of an election year, the issue has turned into a standoff between the Democratic president and his Republican rival Donald Trump — two candidates who are expected to face each other again in November.
Joe Biden is urgently demanding the validation of 60 billion dollars for Ukraine, at war with Russia for almost two years. He coupled this request with another of 14 billion for Israel and funds for Taiwan.
“If we do not stand up against the tyrants who seek to conquer or divide the territory of their neighbors, the consequences for American national security will be considerable,” he warned again on Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump opposed the package debated in the US Congress, saying that the United States should “stop giving money without hoping to be reimbursed”. He claims that if re-elected in November, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” — without really explaining how.
Rain of criticism
However, in these negotiations in Congress, it is he who has the last word: without the support of the Republicans, the majority in the House and mostly loyal to Donald Trump, the text cannot go anywhere.
Monday evening, Mike Johnson, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, announced that he was refusing to examine the text – which makes holding a vote almost impossible.
The Republican leader criticized the bill for being “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country,” namely the migration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The conservatives are in fact making the adoption of new aid to kyiv conditional on a toughening of the immigration policy that they have been calling for for a long time. A first text was presented to the Senate with a strengthening of border controls but was rejected by the Republicans, who did not consider it firm enough.
‘As Trump suggested’
The adoption of the text in the Senate was nevertheless welcomed on Tuesday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said he was “grateful” to the American senators.
“For us, in Ukraine, continued American aid helps save human lives from Russian terror” while “we fight for freedom, democracy,” he declared on X, formerly Twitter.
The resumption of military assistance to Ukraine, which has been interrupted since the end of December, depends on this text negotiated in Congress.
The Democrats are, in the vast majority, in favor. The Republicans are divided between interventionist hawks, pro-Ukraine, and lieutenants of Donald Trump, who are much more isolationist.
An illustration among many others of the overwhelming influence of the Republican candidate on his troops in Congress: Monday evening, Senator Lindsey Graham, until now one of the first Republican supporters of aid to Ukraine, announced that he would ultimately oppose the adoption of the new aid tranche, preferring instead a system of loans… “as President Trump has suggested.”