An influential American senator said on Sunday he was “optimistic” about the possibility of an agreement in the upper house on a major new aid package for Ukraine, but which Republicans are calling for tightening migration measures in the United States.
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While President Joe Biden sharply attacked the Republican elected officials currently blocking his request for an additional $61 billion for Kyiv, intense negotiations will continue this weekend as the Senate postponed its year-end recess, to find a compromise.
“I'm very optimistic,” Joe Manchin, a centrist Democratic senator, said on CNN, indicating he had spoken to his colleagues on both sides. “They are moving in a very positive direction.”
AFP
The US Congress has allocated huge amounts of aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022, but the White House has warned that it will “run out of money” to support Kiev by the end of the year.
The Democrats support this new aid, but the Republicans are demanding a significant tightening of immigration policy in return for their support. Joe Biden had said he was prepared to make “significant compromises” on this issue in order to resolve the situation.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, very conservative, was less optimistic than his colleague on Sunday. “We are not close to an agreement at all,” he said on NBC, estimating that negotiations should continue “next year.”
“I will not help Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel until we secure our border,” he stressed.
But according to Joe Manchin, thanks to the votes of senators from both parties, a compromise could be passed without the support of elected officials far to the right or left who “won’t vote for anything we do.”
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington to urge American elected officials to get in shape before the end of the year.
Joe Biden warned on Tuesday during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart that Russian President Vladimir Putin “expects” American aid to Ukraine to stop. “We have to prove him wrong,” he emphasized.