With Congress deadlocked, U.S. aid to Ukraine dries up
What happened
The Biden administration warned this week that Congress’ failure to pass emergency military aid immediately would “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield,” saying the U.S. would soon run out of money allocated to assist the country in its fight against Russia. Republicans from both houses of Congress said they would consider more aid, but they insisted that funding must be accompanied by sweeping changes to U.S. border policy. In the House, Republicans demanded passage of a bill drafted last spring that would severely restrict the right to seek asylum. In the Senate, Republicans stormed out of a Ukraine briefing when it became clear that border security was not on the agenda. President Biden accused GOP lawmakers of “playing chicken with our national security.” If Ukraine falls, he said, Russia could push farther into Europe, raising the specter of “American troops fighting Russian troops.”
A high-level Ukrainian delegation including the defense minister and the head of parliament met with congressional representatives this week to plead its case. With its counteroffensive sputtering, Ukraine faces a beefed-up Russian military that is to receive $109 billion next year—nearly a third of Russian spending. But the Pentagon has already disbursed 97 percent of the $62 billion in aid earmarked for Ukraine. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that if nothing else arrives, Ukrainians are at a “big risk” of losing the war outright.
What the columnists said
Republicans have issued “a ransom demand,” said Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg. They are insisting on every provision in their failed Secure the Border Act, which would cut virtually all services for asylum seekers, roll back safeguards for migrant children, and make employers check workers’ papers. And this time, even senators are in on the legislative extortion. “This is not a traditional negotiation,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), but “a price that has to be paid.”
Biden has neglected the border to a shocking extent, but that’s not Ukraine’s fault, said National Review in an editorial. Given that Republicans will not get all they are asking for on border security, they should consider pushing for “a more achievable goal”—such as more detention facilities and meaningful restrictions on the number of migrants who can enter the U.S. provisionally. Refusing to pass Ukraine aid at all would be “national-security malpractice.”
As Russia rains down bombs on heating infrastructure, millions of Ukrainians “will have trouble surviving the winter” without U.S. help, said Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic. But more than humanitarian concerns are at stake. Allowing Russia to swallow Ukraine would create a Europe where “Poland, the Baltic states, and even Germany are under constant physical threat.” It would “empower Iran” and other bad actors and embolden China to attack Taiwan. If only out of self-interest, “the West must defeat Russia.”