The House of Representatives of the US Congress passed a bill providing, inter alia, the extension of military assistance to Ukraine. According to the publication Defense News, the lower house of congress adopted the corresponding document on September 19. On the same day he entered the consideration of the American Senate. The purpose of the bill is to avoid suspension of the work of the government due to the protracted discussion of the country's budget in Congress. It provides that funding for a number of programs in the first two months of fiscal year 2020 will remain at the level of 2019.

“In addition to the amount provided for in section 101“ Initiatives to Promote the Security of Ukraine ”, on September 30, 2019, additional appropriations are allocated for fiscal year 2019 in an amount equal to unspent balances canceled in accordance with subsection (a) of this section: provided that the amounts provided in accordance with this subsection will be available until September 30, 2020 and will be used for the same purposes by the same departments for which they were originally provided for by Public Law 115-245; provided that, in accordance with Section 251 (b) (2) (A) (ii) of the 1985 Balanced Budget and Controlling Deficit of Emergencies Act, such an amount will be allocated by Congress as intended for emergency operations abroad / global war on terrorism, ”the bill says.

Thus, the document provides for the possibility of providing Ukraine with military assistance in the amount of $ 250 million. This amount was laid down for Kiev in the budget for 2019, however, the Trump administration blocked the allocation of money until mid-September. At the same time, this program expired on September 30, and Kiev might not have received the money promised once.

Nevertheless, in the draft defense budget for 2020, Congress again reserved $ 250 million to assist Ukraine in the field of security.

"Do not spend extra money"

Recall that in early September, the US Congress called on President Donald Trump to unfreeze the allocation of funds intended to provide military assistance to Ukraine. In late August, US media reported that the White House had questions about how the funds allocated to Kiev are being spent, which is why an audit was scheduled.

It was reported that the money that should have been spent this year in the framework of the Initiative to Promote the Security of Ukraine program remained on the accounts of the American army.

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Only after the congressmen sounded the alarm did the Trump administration unfreeze the allocation of funds that they met with satisfaction in Kiev. President Vladimir Zelensky said he was "grateful to the United States for unblocking military assistance." The Pentagon also said that it was ready to provide Kiev with an additional $ 141.5 million for security programs.

As political analyst Alexander Asafov noted in an interview with RT, the US legislature is more interested than the executive in allocating money to Ukraine.

“Congressmen directly and indirectly support financing of Ukraine and its anti-Russian steps, because in this case they can get economic advantages and preferences,” Asafov said. “In addition, inflating the anti-Russian factor, they provide assistance to Kiev in defiance of their own president, because they know that he is extremely cool in both Ukraine and its authorities.”

In his opinion, the Ukrainian issue is on the periphery of Trump’s attention, for which the problems associated with Iran and Venezuela are more important.

“Trump is trying not to spend extra money where it is not required,” Asafov said.

The expert of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Vladimir Bruter, in turn, believes that containing Russia is a priority for both Congress and the White House. That is why the Americans plan to arm Kiev.

“This is the basis of US policy to contain Russia,” Vladimir Bruter said in an interview with RT. “In addition, this is an indicator of Washington’s foreign policy activity, his struggle to strengthen his own position in the world.”

However, as the expert notes, opponents of Trump among the Democrats are indeed more active than the president in terms of support for Kiev.

“Trump has no particular desire to get involved in this situation, but there is an understanding that he must maintain the status quo in order to prevent the weakening of the Ukrainian position,” Bruter notes.

Intra-American dimension

On September 9, the heads of the three House Congressional Committee on International Affairs, Intelligence, and State Oversight and Reform Eliot Engel, Adam Schiff and Elijah Cummings accused Donald Trump of exerting pressure on the Ukrainian government to get incriminating materials on his opponents in the United States, among which one of the main contenders for the role of Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 is Joe Biden. His son Hunter served on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private gas companies in Ukraine, for some time. Then Joe Biden served as vice president of the United States, overseeing, inter alia, relations with Kiev.

  • Donald Trump
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According to the leaders of the three committees of the lower house of Congress belonging to the Democratic Party, Donald Trump used the freezing of military assistance to Kiev as an instrument of pressure on the Ukrainian authorities.

“President Trump also threatened to block the transfer of military assistance in the amount of $ 250 million, which was approved by Congress, supported by the Pentagon and which Ukraine desperately needs ... If President Trump really challenges Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression without US assistance or to allow the judicial system of Ukraine to act in the interests of Trump’s campaign headquarters, this is a blatant abuse of power, a gift for Russia and a betrayal of public confidence, ”the letter says White House legal adviser to President Pat Chipollone.

The American publication The Hill in April wrote that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine suspected Hunter Biden of receiving bribes from the leadership of Burisma.

At the same time, Biden Sr. facilitated the removal from office of the Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who allegedly planned to interrogate his son.

In turn, on September 19, the American newspaper The Washington Post, citing its own sources, reported that US intelligence was worried about Trump’s conversation with a certain “foreign leader” that concerned Ukraine. Recall that earlier the publication wrote that a representative of the American intelligence community filed a report on Trump's warning that alerted him to one of the leaders of foreign states. According to the publication, shortly before the appearance of this information, Trump had a conversation with Vladimir Zelensky.

“The revealing complaint against President Trump, which was filed by an intelligence officer and unleashed a struggle between Congress and the executive, according to two people who are familiar with this issue, is connected with Ukraine,” The Washington Post reports. “Two former U.S. officials said the complaint concerned contacts with a certain foreign leader and Trump’s“ promise ”that bothered the US intelligence officer who worked at the White House so much that he turned to the Inspector General of the intelligence community.”

“Involve in the Ukrainian question”

However, Trump denied the statement of The Washington Post, calling it fake news. Meanwhile, Trump's lawyer Rudolph Giuliani in an interview with CNN admitted that he talked with Kiev about the possible interference of Ukrainians in the 2016 elections on the side of Hillary Clinton.

Regarding things related to Biden, Giuliani made a number of conflicting statements. At first, he said that he did not ask the Ukrainians to conduct an investigation against Biden, but then admitted that after all, the name of the former vice president appeared in his communication with representatives of the Ukrainian side.

According to Alexander Asafov, if earlier the opponents of Trump tried unsuccessfully to accuse him of conspiring with Russia, now Ukraine is in this place. Democrats are using the alleged presidential pressure on Kiev to weaken the political position of the American leader.

“They tried to connect Trump for a long time with Russia, but according to the report of the special prosecutor Mueller, it was established that there was no“ conspiracy ”. Now opponents of the US president have decided to draw him into the Ukrainian question, ”Asafov said.

At the same time, according to him, the American president is quite capable of “exerting more serious pressure on Ukraine, if necessary.”

In turn, Vladimir Bruter believes that in order to obtain information that can be used against Joe Biden, Trump does not need to resort to such a radical measure as the suspension of military support for Ukraine.

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“I’m sure that in a certain sense compromising evidence on Biden will be provided even without threatening to freeze military aid to Kiev,” the political scientist claims. “In my opinion, Trump already has enough funds to deal with Biden.”