Ukraine’s soldiers have been reduced to rationing ammo and checking daily for any updates from US lawmakers over whether Congress may cough up more aid, a Democratic senator claimed Sunday.
“Ukrainians on the front lines are rationing bullets! More people are dying, more territory is being taken by Putin, because Republicans are afraid of what they call ‘procedural violence’ – ‘a motion to vacate’ or a ‘discharge petition,'” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted on X, referring to the congressional chaos over proposed legislation that includes billions of dollars in additional funding for Ukraine.
“Suck it up and pass the bill,” he urged his Capitol Hill colleagues.
Schatz also confirmed Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s account that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told senators that Ukrainians on the front lines are “checking in daily on what’s going on in the House.”
Last week, the Senate passed a $95 billion package that allocated roughly $60 billion for Kyiv. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) indicated the lower chamber won’t take up that bill.
Johnson has stared down members of his own party threatening to put forth a motion to vacate — or oust him — if he brings up additional aid to Ukraine.
He previously demanded that aid to Ukraine be paired with legislation to bolster US border security but then deemed a bipartisan Senate bill considered earlier this month to achieve that “dead on arrival.”
Some Democrats have privately mused about circumventing Johnson through a procedural technique known as a discharge petition to bring the bill up to the floor without his blessing.
But that would require Republicans to go along with it.
Given the fact that a slew of Democrats have voiced apprehension about the support for Israel nestled in the package, they may need more than a dozen Republicans to defy the GOP leadership.
President Biden asked Congress to re-up aid to Ukraine in August. Congress has now spent about seven months dithering over that request. The Pentagon has warned that the current funding for Ukraine has dried up.
On Feb. 24, Ukraine is set to mark the two-year anniversary of Russia’s bloody invasion of it.
Ukraine was forced to retreat from its eastern city of Avdiivka on Saturday, marking one of the Kremlin’s most significant victories over the past couple of months.
House Intelligence Committee Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week, confirmed that Zelensky, who was there, too, is nervous that Congress won’t replenish aid.
“Zelensky, of course, did not blame his current situation or what occurred today on the delay that’s occurring,” Turner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.
“He did indicate that he’s certainly worried that the delay could cause a gap in weapons getting to the Ukraine.”
President Biden has sought to assure Zelensky that supplemental support will get the green light.
“I spoke with Zelenskyy this afternoon to let him know that I was confident we’re going to get that money,” Biden said during a brief exchange with reporters Saturday.
A recent survey from Pew Research found that 74% of Americans see the war in Ukraine as important to national interests. Forty-three percent characterized it as “very important.”
Johnson has sought a meeting with Biden to clear the air on their differences but claims the White House has declined to give him one.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has seemingly kept the possibility of deploying a discharge petition on the table.