White House presses House GOP to pass Ukraine aid
“Are House Republicans willing to see Ukraine fall to Russia? …Are House Republicans willing to hand Putin and the Supreme Leader such a victory?” NSC spokesman John Kirby.
The White House pressed House Republicans to pass supplemental legislation to send urgently needed military aid to Ukraine, on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and warned that Russian forces were making territorial gains with the support of weaponry from Iran and North Korea while House Republicans were on vacation.
“Without new security assistance deliveries from the United States, Ukrainian forces are rationing out their bullets and artillery shells,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told journalists on a virtual call today. “They are having to make difficult decisions on the battlefield just about holding on to key terrain.”
“The U.S. House of Representatives is leaving Ukraine to fend for themselves,” Kirby said. “Do not think for a moment that Vladimir Putin isn’t capitalizing on all of this….He believes Congress will not act. He clearly believes now is his best chance to bring Ukraine to its knees. … He is counting on the West giving up.”
“Are House Republicans willing to see Ukraine fall to Russia?” Kirby said. “Are House Republicans willing to stand aside while Iran deepens its partnership with Russia and actively participates in the killing of Ukrainians and the further destruction of that country? Are House Republicans willing to hand Putin and the Supreme Leader such a victory? Because that's what this comes down to.”
“You can't say that you believe in American leadership and American strength and American national defense and then embolden two leaders who are actively working to undermine those things,” Kirby continued. “We need the supplemental bill passed now. With each passing day, the Ukrainian frontlines are growing thinner, and our own national security is increasingly being threatened.”
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) last week sent the House on a two week vacation, rather than take up the supplemental legislation to send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that passed the Senate 70 to 29 on Feb. 13.
Last fall, Johnson had demanded that any military aid for Ukraine be attached to increased border security measures. But after months of bipartisan Senate negotiations reached a deal to meet that demand, Johnson, under new orders from presumptive GOP presidential nominee Trump, declared the bill dead on arrival before even looking at it, and refused to bring it to a vote. Now he’s sent Congress on vacation without dealing with the new bill. (Johnson was photographed last weekend meeting Trump at the former president’s Mar a Lago club in Florida).
President Biden, speaking at a campaign event in California last night, expressed disgust at Republican fecklessness and subservience to the former president openly trying to kill border security legislation that they had previously demanded lest it solve an American problem and help Biden.
“Time and again, Republicans show [that they are] the party of chaos …and division,” Biden said.
After Senate negotiators reached a compromise deal that would have provided thousands more agents and funds to tighten security on the US Mexico border, Biden recounted, “Then Trump gets on the phone,…and tells the House members that ‘If you vote for this, I’m coming after you,’” Biden said. So Congressional Republicans “changed their mind. Why? Because [Trump] said, ‘It will help Biden if you do this….So don’t do it.’”
“I don’t remember that happening before,” Biden said. “And look at what they’re doing on national security. The so-called supplemental bill, the one that has money for Israel, for Taiwan, for…Ukraine…Well, guess what? You saw Trump. …He says that NATO—first of all, he doesn’t like NATO. He wanted to pull out of it completely….And he…said, if in fact, NATO members don’t pay their dues,…he welcomed Putin to invade that country, and we would do nothing.”
“Bottom line: … the Republican Party has to decide: Who do they serve? Do they serve Donald Trump? Or do they serve the American people?” Biden said. “Are they were to solve problems? Or just weaponize these things into political attacks?
“I know the answer,” Biden said. “I’m here to serve the American people.”
At a breakfast last week, Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee, said he did not expect Johnson to bring the supplemental with the aid for Ukraine to the House floor for a vote until after the House deals with legislation to keep the government funded, which runs out March 8. And even then, McCaul was hopeful but not certain that Johnson would bring it for a vote, or in what form.
“I don't want to speak for the Speaker, but, I do think he wants to get through the appropriations process first. That takes us to March 8th. And then deal with the supplemental,” McCaul told journalists at a breakfast Feb. 16 hosted by the Monitor newspaper.
McCaul suggested that the House GOP would want to put its “imprimatur” on a bill with military support for Ukraine, rather than just pass a clean version of the Senate supplemental. He suggested that ideas such as making it a loan rather than aid to Ukraine might be able to gain Trump’s, and thereby Johnson’s, support, as well as a proposal to use frozen Russian foreign assets abroad for supporting Ukraine, (known as the REPO act).
“I do think he's committed,” McCaul said, of Johnson and possible aid for Ukraine. “I think we have to make it palatable…. And that's why adding…the REPO provision is, I think, so important because I know that in my conversation with the Speaker, he's a huge fan of that. It's a pay for, where Russia pays for its own war crimes. It's not the American taxpayer. Now, you can’t tap into it immediately, but it sets the tone…And I think this loan program can be very helpful. And I know there's been some progress with the former president to talk about this. That I think could be helpful as well.
“At the end of the day, I do think there's still a majority in the House that will pass it,” McCaul said. “It just has come to the floor now.”
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On the second anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, I am cross posting an excerpt from Ukraine-based war correspondent Tim Mak’s report on “The Epic battle that saved Kyiv from Russian occupation”:
“Where’s my artillery?” demanded the voice on the phone.
It was Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Russian paratroopers had landed on Antonov Airfield, 20 miles northwest of central Kyiv, despite courageous efforts by Ukrainian special operators and the Fourth Brigade of the National Guard to defend the grounds.
By 3 p.m. on February 24th, 2022, the first day of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces had been forced to pull back to the perimeter of the strategic site.
This single moment was the point of maximum danger and vulnerability for the survival of the modern Ukrainian state.
Having taken the airfield in an air assault, the Russians now had the opportunity to land massive cargo planes filled with armored vehicles and thousands of troops, right in the suburbs of Kyiv. With that ability, the city could fall within hours, and with it, the democratically-elected government.
It fell to Col. Oleksandr Vdovichenko, the commander of Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade, to make sure that the Russians couldn’t hold the airfield.
Read the rest of the report here, and if you don’t already, consider subscribing to Mak’s The Counteroffensive for more of his on the ground Ukraine reporting.
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