The White House said that a number of congressmen from the Republican Party criticize US spending on the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and assistance to Kyiv. This was announced by White House Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby.

"A small group of very vocal Republicans from the House of Representatives, who hold right-wing radical views, continue to oppose additional assistance to Ukraine. But the president is confident that the support we receive from the leadership of both chambers remains at a high level," he said in an interview with The Telegraph.

Kirby argues that there will be no reduction in financial assistance to Kyiv. According to him, politicians from Capitol Hill are "still very strongly" in favor of supporting Ukraine.

He also said that the White House is actively discussing whether to send new ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine. However, the decision, according to Kirby, has not been made.

Earlier, four Republican senators — Tom Cotton, Roger Wicker, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham — called on US President Joe Biden to provide Ukraine with ATACMS missiles.

As Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov noted, this call came "only" from four Republican senators out of 49 in the upper house. According to him, among "these four are patented haters of Russia" Graham and Cotton, next to whom even many Democrats are real "doves".

"Moreover, their position is not typical for Republicans, who for the most part criticize the volume of military and financial assistance to Ukraine from the United States. And it is far from the approaches of the three main US presidential candidates from the Republican Party - Trump, DeSantis and Ramaswamy," he wrote on Telegram.

Recall that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis stated that supporting Ukraine is not a vital national interest of the United States, and Vivek Ramaswamy said that he would completely refuse to provide financial assistance to Kyiv.

  • White House Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby
  • AP
  • © Susan Walsh

Votes against

It is worth noting that, in addition to Republican presidential candidates, a number of their party colleagues are also skeptical about financing Ukraine.

Thus, Congresswoman Lisa McClain, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, believes that the United States should spend finances on the country's internal problems, for example, to eliminate the consequences of the recent devastating fires in the state of Hawaii.

"I'm more concerned about disaster relief for the United States. That's what we're focused on right now," The Hill quoted her as saying.

In turn, a member of the House of Representatives from the Republican Party, former chairman of the party meeting of Republican congressmen Freedom Caucus, Andrew Biggs, said that he would not support a new package of assistance to Ukraine and doubted that any option for financial assistance to Kyiv would be considered in the session hall of representatives in the near future.

For her part, Nancy Mace, a member of the armed forces committee of the lower house of Congress from the Republican Party, said that "many other issues remain to be resolved before" considering the problem of financial assistance to Ukraine.

"It will be difficult to convince Americans of the need for additional funding for Ukraine, because every day fewer and fewer US citizens support the war in Ukraine," she said.

Recall that in early August, CNN published a survey according to which 55% of American respondents do not want Congress to authorize additional funding for Ukraine. 71% of Republican respondents believe that Congress should not approve new financial tranches for the Kyiv regime, and 59% believe that the United States "has done enough to help Ukraine."

Later, the results of a similar sociological study were published by Fox News. According to these data, more and more Americans (36% compared to 26% in December 2022) believe that it is necessary to reduce the amount of assistance to the Kyiv regime. At the same time, there are more supporters of reducing support for Ukraine in the Republican Party - this opinion is shared by 56% of respondents (at the end of 2022 - 40%).

  • Hawaiian protesters
  • AP
  • © Jae C. Hong

The US Congress expressed hope that Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy will completely remove the issue of financing Ukraine from the agenda of the session hall of the House of Representatives.

"We need to address other issues," said Warren Davidson, a lawmaker in the lower house, a Republican and a member of the Freedom Caucus Republican congressional party caucus. "The House of Representatives needs to focus on funding the government."

Davidson also said he would oppose any future aid packages to Ukraine "until the Biden administration presents Congress with a clear mission" for this conflict.

As summarized by the newspaper The Hill, the Republican Party has long opposed the allocation of funds for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but recently similar sentiments have been observed among more moderate-minded representatives of the party.

"Not in the interests of Americans"

As Dmitry Evstafiev, a professor at the Institute of Media at the Higher School of Economics, noted in a conversation with RT, Kirby's statement suggests that Washington can no longer ignore the fact that there is a bloc of opponents of unlimited assistance to Kiev in the US Congress.

"A critical mass of those who oppose constant financial tranches and arms supplies to Ukraine has accumulated. This does not mean that there are any pro-Russian people in American politics or that most US lawmakers oppose helping Kiev. The point is that this is already a serious part of the American political establishment, which is beginning to include not only the Trumpists, but also the moderate part of Congress, "he explained.

According to the general director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, the Republicans in the situation of "uncontrolled generous assistance" to Kiev "groped" the weakness of the Democrats and will pedal this topic in the context of the upcoming presidential elections in the United States.

"The money goes not only to Ukraine, but also ends up in the wallets of the relevant affiliated firms in the United States. This is another issue that representatives of the Republican Party will use against the Democrats. However, you need to understand that there is still a consensus between Republicans and Democrats: assistance to Ukraine will be provided in any case, albeit in smaller volumes than before, "Mukhin said in a conversation with RT.

Vladimir Vasiliev, Chief Researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shares this point of view. In a conversation with RT, he stressed that the trend of increasing the number of critics of Kiev's support in Congress "is on the rise."

"America has entered the election campaign, and, apparently, domestic problems are gradually beginning to dominate the foreign policy agenda, especially the Ukrainian one, among lawmakers. This is natural, because the voter is inside the United States, not outside them, "said Vasiliev.

  • Meeting of the U.S. Congress
  • Gettyimages.ru
  • © Chip Somodevilla

As the expert emphasized, the campaigns of presidential candidates have just begun, so in the future we should expect an increase in pressure on their part on the current administration due to the lack of proper attention of the White House to domestic politics.

"Ukraine has become an eyesore because the issues related to it do not meet the interests of ordinary Americans. Tens of billions of dollars are allocated for the needs of the Kyiv regime, which could be used to eliminate the consequences of fires, floods, improve infrastructure and other needs of Americans. Today, Kiev receives more than Hawaii destroyed by fire, "Vasilyev said.

However, as Mukhin said, at this stage, Republican statements against additional funding for Ukraine will not be able to significantly affect the policy of the White House.

"The Biden administration is now doing what it sees fit, without looking too much at the position of the Republicans. Washington is aware of the internal problems of the United States, due to which the rating of the head of the White House is still at low levels. However, Biden himself blocked all the exits: relying on the Ukrainian issue in his course, he now cannot depart from it, so as not to seem weak. Therefore, assistance to Ukraine is now a priority for Washington. However, criticism of assistance to Kiev will only worsen, and as the elections approach, this may affect the volume and intensity of weapons tranches for Ukraine, "the analyst concluded.