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US President Joe Biden will veto a House Republican bill to provide aid only to Israel but not Ukraine, which would cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), if it is passed by both houses of Congress, the White House said on Tuesday.

“Unlike the president’s national security package, this bill does not provide any assistance to Ukraine. This is an urgent requirement,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said.

The position of the US government

The Biden administration is trying to convince the US Congress to support aid to both Ukraine and Israel and to approve a new aid package of more than $105 billion, which includes more than $61 billion in funding for aid to Ukraine.

A group of Republicans in the House of Representatives of the US Congress, led by the speaker, opposes the unification of aid to Israel and Ukraine. On Monday, conservatives unveiled their $14 billion bailout plan for Israel, with the spending proposed to be offset by other spending cuts, including cuts to the IRS.

In response, the press secretary of the White House published a statement that the “politicization of the interests” of national security “will not pass” and that the demand for compensation mechanisms for supporting Israel and Ukraine contradicts the “normal bipartisan process and could have a devastating effect” on US security.

During a briefing at the White House, John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator of the US National Security Council, also emphasized the day before that the issues of aid to Ukraine and Israel are intertwined, and the separation of funding for the two countries does not meet the interests of US national security.

And US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin emphasized during a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee that without financial support from the US and NATO, the Ukrainians could lose this war.

12 Republican conditions

In a letter to Biden on October 27, eight Republican congressmen said that the aid provided by the United States would not be able to give Kyiv a “decisive advantage” in “trench warfare the likes of which the world has not seen since 1914” and that “American taxpayers are tired of funding an endless stalemate in Ukraine without the appearance of victory”.

They voiced 12 conditions to the White House, without which they will not agree to send “an additional dollar” to Kyiv. In particular, they want Presidents Biden and Zelensky to provide Congress with a clear “victory strategy” with estimates of “how exactly Ukraine will win and how long it may take,” as well as how much it will cost. From the Pentagon and the White House, the Republican congressmen who signed the letter want constant public information about the situation on the front in Ukraine, about the upcoming “spring counteroffensive”, as well as an explanation of why these investments in Ukraine are important for the United States.

In addition, the authors of the letter demand a full report to Congress on the weapons provided to Kyiv, and on American sanctions against Russia. Separately, they want an explanation of Kyiv’s goals regarding Crimea, as well as the introduction of a full sanctions policy on all oil, grain and rare fossil materials from Russia.

At the same time, many Republicans in the Senate are urging not to split the vote for aid to Ukraine and Israel. It would be a big mistake for the US to separate the vote for aid to Ukraine and Israel, the influential American Republican senator Lindsey Graham believes. According to him, if aid to Kyiv is reduced, Russia will be able to succeed in its war against Ukraine, and this will “encourage” Hamas as an organization friendly to President Putin, and the consequence of this may be China’s invasion of Taiwan.

The article uses Reuters materials