A good signal for Ukraine. The United States Senate voted Sunday, February 11, by a clear majority to remove the final procedural hurdle before a vote on the bill providing $95.34 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and of Taiwan, despite the opposition of Donald Trump and his supporters.
"Ukraine is dangerously short of reserves. If America doesn't send aid to Ukraine with this national security bill, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has every chance of succeeding" , warned the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, before the vote.
Eighteen Republican senators voted for
The Senate, where the Democrats only have a narrow majority, voted by 67 votes to 27 in favor of putting the text presented by Joe Biden's administration to a vote in the coming days. It took 60 votes for the text to pass the obstacle.
Eighteen Republican elected officials supported the bill even though Donald Trump, who is leading the race in the primaries for the November presidential election, has increased his hostile statements to the continuation of aid. Ukraine, or only in the form of loans.
“Today, it is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world are on the American Senate,” said the leader of the Republicans in the upper house, Mitch McConnell. "We have not equipped the brave people of Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan with lethal equipment in order to win philanthropic awards... We do it because it is in our own interest ", he added.
The text will still have to pass the stage of the House of Representatives
The release of this aid of 61 billion dollars - a large part of which would remain in the United States to finance the American arms industry - is crucial for Kyiv as the second anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches.
The adoption of the bill by the Senate would not, however, mark the end of the journey, since it would still have to be adopted by the House of Representatives, where the Republicans have a narrow majority and whose President Mike Johnson, a close friend of Donald Trump does not hide his reluctance to put it on the agenda.
Faced with these prevarications, President Joe Biden estimated on Friday that Congress would be guilty of “criminal negligence” if it did not pass the law.
Republican senators and representatives who support the project hope that the bipartisan vote in the Senate will encourage elected officials in the House to do the same, especially as continued aid to Ukraine continues to enjoy strong support in American public opinion.
With Reuters and AFP
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