Ukraine aid bill will be put to a vote

The US House of Representatives will consider several bills this week that would provide military aid to Israel, Ukraine and other allies of the United States. This was announced on Monday by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson.

According to Johnson, he intends to submit several bills for consideration by legislators: on the allocation of funds to Israel for defense spending, on the financing of military assistance to Ukraine, on assistance to Taiwan and other American allies, on the conditions for Ukraine to return in the future part of the funds allocated by the United States, and on the financing of assistance Kyiv through the sale of Russian state assets frozen in the United States.

“We know that the whole world is watching us, waiting for our reaction,” said Mike Johnson. “Terrorists, tyrants, terrible leaders like Putin, Xi, the Iranians are watching whether America is ready to support its allies and defend its interests around the world – and we will do it.”

A bill to provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other United States allies was introduced in the House of Representatives last fall. However, Speaker Johnson refused to give it a go under pressure from a group of conservative Republican legislators, some of whom opposed support for Ukraine, while others demanded that the White House take tough measures to protect the country’s borders from illegal migrants as a precondition. In January, the upper House of Congress, the Senate, approved a bill that would provide $60 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. Most congressmen were ready to support such a bill. The main obstacle remained Mike Johnson’s refusal to introduce the bill to the House of Representatives. Johnson’s decision to introduce several separate bills in the House of Representatives is seen as a concession to conservative Republicans, who demanded the opportunity to vote on each document.

As the American media writeIn recent weeks, Mike Johnson has both publicly and privately expressed his determination to ensure that aid is provided to Ukraine. The proposal to allocate part of the assistance to Kyiv in the form of long-term loans, the willingness to confiscate the assets of the Russian Central Bank is the speaker’s attempt to find a compromise with conservative-minded Republicans. However, the success of the House Speaker’s plan is not yet guaranteed. Several Republicans have already spoken out against it, including prominent Johnson critic Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the speaker’s proposal a “fraud” and threatened to move the House to remove Johnson as speaker.