The News
The path forward for additional U.S. aid to Ukraine is murky after lawmakers opted not to include any in the temporary government funding bill Congress passed this weekend. Republican leaders already are demanding it be linked with border security measures.
The circumstances have left some Ukrainians feeling deflated. “I am in despair,” Oleksandra Ustinova, a Ukrainian member of parliament who heads a commission that tracks foreign military assistance, told Semafor.
The White House is projecting more optimism. In a speech on Sunday, President Biden said he expected Congress to pass more Ukraine funding and suggested that he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif. had made a deal to hold a vote on more assistance.
“We’re going to get it done,” Biden said. “We have time, not much time, and there’s an overwhelming sense of urgency.”
But the contours of a Ukraine package — how large it would be and what it might be paired with — as well as the timing of a vote are not clear, particularly in the House, where McCarthy now needs to worry about a threat to his speakership.
In an interview on CBS News, McCarthy suggested that Ukraine assistance would be contingent on the Senate taking action on border