The Kremlin said on Thursday it hopes US politicians will stop “burning the country’s money” in Ukraine after Congress failed to pass new aid to Kiev on Wednesday.
US leaders want to “continue burning taxpayers’ money in the furnace of the Ukrainian war,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said he hoped there would still be “enough reasonable people among members of Congress” to reject it.
On Wednesday, Republicans blocked the passage in the United States Senate of a budget bill worth about 97.5 billion euros, which includes funds to support Ukraine and Israel.
To pass this bill, Republicans are demanding the tightening of US immigration laws, especially the asylum system, and the elimination of some humanitarian permits for migrants.
All 49 Republican senators in the upper house of the US Congress voted against approving the bill, which includes more than 61 billion euros in military aid for Kiev and about 14 billion euros for Israel.
During an intervention in the House, the leader of the conservative bench in the Senate, Mitch MacConell, guaranteed that his party would not support any budget package if no immigration restrictions were imposed in return.
“As we have been saying for weeks, legislative projects that do not include changes that strengthen security at our borders will not be approved in the Senate,” he stressed.
For their part, Democrats emphasized that, from their perspective, it is crucial to continue supporting Ukraine and Israel.
Also on Wednesday, Biden even indicated that he was willing to make concessions on immigration in exchange for approval.
“I am prepared to make important concessions at the border. We need to fix the border system. It does not work. And so far I have had no response,” Biden assured in statements to reporters at the White House.
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced another security aid package from the United States to Ukraine, worth 175 million dollars (162.4 million euros).
Among the requests of the Republicans is to change the law that allows a person to seek asylum on North American territory, imposing stricter requirements on those seeking protection, according to information released by the US media and obtained from the negotiations emerged.
Conservatives are also calling for limits on the use of “parole,” a legal provision that allows immigration authorities to let people into the country on humanitarian grounds.
Biden’s executive branch warned on Monday that the US government will run out of money at the end of the year to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia and will run out of resources to acquire more weapons and equipment for Kiev.
To date, the United States has provided $111 billion (€103 billion at the current exchange rate) in financing to support Ukraine.
After the budget extension passed this month and ratified by Biden, lawmakers will have until February to negotiate the budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which has already begun.
Source: DN
