The US Senate has blocked a bill on military aid to Ukraine

On Wednesday, the US Senate blocked a bill on providing military aid to Ukraine and Israel, which also provided for tightening controls on the border with Mexico.

The document, which was developed for several months, could not get the necessary 60 votes of senators: only in this case could it be put to the final vote.

For a positive resolution of the issue, 60 senators out of 100 had to speak in favor of the draft law. As a result, 49 members of the Senate voted “for”, 50 voted “against”, including 44 Republicans.

It is noted that such a result was expected. In particular, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and the leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said the day before that the bill was “impossible”. US President Joe Biden also suggested that the bill would ultimately not be submitted to the Senate for consideration. He directly accused Donald Trump of this, saying that he exerts political pressure on Republican legislators.

• The draft law on the provision of military aid to Ukraine for more than $60 billion, as well as to Israel and Taiwan, simultaneously providing for the tightening of migration policy in the USA, is the result of many months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans and a compromise between them. However, after the agreed document was criticized by former US President Donald Trump, who will most likely be the candidate of the Republican Party in the presidential elections this year, his supporters in the Senate opposed the adoption of the bill in its current form. Trump and the Republicans in the House of Representatives do not directly reject assistance to Ukraine, but insist on an even greater tightening of migration legislation and consider the issue of the southern border a top priority.
• As a result, only four Republicans voted Wednesday for the deal: Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah) and James Lankford (Oklahoma). The first three senators are known for their critical position in relation to Trump, the fourth directly participated in negotiations with Democrats and approval of the compromise bill.
• Recently, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities and the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces increasingly express doubts that without the multibillion-dollar package of US military aid, Ukraine will be able to resist Russian military aggression. US President Joe Biden also called on Congress to approve aid to Ukraine sooner.