2023-12-17 18:03:24
An influential American senator said on Sunday he was “optimistic” about the possibility of an agreement in the upper house on a new crucial aid package for Ukraine, but against which Republicans are demanding a toughening of migration measures in the States -United.
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While President Joe Biden harshly attacked Republican elected officials who are currently blocking his request for an additional envelope of $61 billion for Kyiv, intense negotiations are continuing this weekend, with the Senate having postponed its recess end of year to find a compromise.
“I am very optimistic,” Joe Manchin, a centrist Democratic senator, said on CNN, indicating that he had spoken to his colleagues on both sides. “They are moving in a very positive direction.”
The US Congress has released huge amounts of aid for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, but the White House has warned that it will “run out of money” by the end of the year to support Kyiv.
Democrats are in favor of this new aid, but Republicans are demanding a major tightening of immigration policy in exchange for their support. Joe Biden had declared that he was ready to make “significant compromises” on this subject in order to allow the situation to be resolved.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, very conservative, was less optimistic than his colleague on Sunday. “We are not at all close to an agreement,” 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 insisted.
But according to Joe Manchin, a compromise could be adopted thanks to the votes of senators from both parties without the support of elected officials very far to the right or to the left, who “will not vote in favor whatever 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 Tuesday, during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “counting” on the fact that American aid to Ukraine would stop. “We have to prove him wrong,” he insisted.
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