White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday dismissed growing concerns that Republican lawmakers would not keep aid flowing to Ukraine if they retake control of the US House of Representatives in midterm elections. end of November.
“The United States has provided Ukraine with strong bipartisan support,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We will continue to work with Congress as we have in recent months on these efforts and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
The United States has authorized more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, with more than $17 billion in security assistance disbursed since the war started in february.
However, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has indicated aid could decline if Republicans control the chamber.
On Tuesday, McCarthy told PunchbowlNews that with the coming of a recession, Americans are not going to write “a blank check” to Ukraine. “They just won’t. It’s not a free blank check,” he said.
The Ukrainians, who still recovering from missile attacks and Russian drones in its capital, kyiv, and other cities, leaving much of the country without electricity, are closely following the US mid-term electoral process, acknowledges Olena Shuliak, general secretary of the ruling Sluhá Narodu party ( People’s Servant).
“Our people die every day. Every day we defend democracy around the world, ”he told the Ukrainian service of the voice of america. “You can see what is happening on a daily basis with our homes being bombed and destroyed and our people being killed – you cannot decrease support just to increase it.”
Every day we defend democracy around the world”
Observers say that with growing isolationist tendencies in the Republican Party, some are concerned that aid to Ukraine will decline, particularly for humanitarian and economic needs. However, there is less concern about US security assistance, considering that Republicans are generally supportive of the military industrial complex, said Kristine Berzina, senior fellow for security and defense policy at the US German Marshall Fund.
“What is the desperate need of the Europeans right now in the Ukraine and on the entire eastern flank? It is the need for weapons systems, from ammunition to very sophisticated weapons systems like [sistemas lanzamisiles] HIMARS and drones,” Berzina told the VOA. “Defense budgets are increasing so significantly in Europe that the increase in defense spending is outstripping what is available on the shelf.”
In May, Congress approved more than $40 billion in new military and humanitarian assistance, though 57 House Republicans voted against the package.
Some Republican lawmakers also cited the need for more oversight of aid going to Ukraine and complained that the United States is shouldering a greater financial burden than other NATO members.
Observers say stopping US support for Ukraine would undermine kyiv’s battlefield advantage and could alter the course of the war.
“Is it better to have an investment in Ukraine’s defense right now before having to defend half of the European continent?” Berzina wondered. “So there’s a fiscally conservative argument to stop it now, before the problem gets so big that the United States has to pour more money into much bigger places.”
[La periodista Tatiana Koprowicz contribuyó a este despacho]
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