Ukrainian minister confident US House will vote to support Ukraine

KYIV – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday said he was confident the US House of Representatives, in turmoil for weeks over the choice of Speaker, would back a request for additional funds for Ukraine’s military.

“The main thing is the outcome – are there enough votes or not?” Mr Kuleba told Ukrainian national television.

“And at the moment, we have every reason to believe that there are votes in the US House of Representatives for the Bill providing Ukraine with additional support.”

Mr Kuleba said he was aware of “considerable political resistance” to the Bill’s provisions, and that it would be a “sin” for US lawmakers not to use the legislation to further their own interests.

The US House of Representatives last week

elected Republican Mike Johnson

, a conservative with little leadership experience, as Speaker, ending a turbulent three weeks that left the Chamber rudderless and unable to carry out any of its basic duties.

Mr Johnson said last week that funding to support Ukraine and Israel should be handled separately, suggesting he would not back

United States President Joe Biden’s US$106 billion (S$145.5 billion) aid package

for both countries. 

The new Speaker told Fox News he had concerns about Ukraine funding in general, and believed

any money for Israel

would need to be funded by cuts elsewhere.

Mr Biden wants Congress to provide US$106 billion in supplemental funding, with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine’s defences, and the remainder split among Israel, the Indo-Pacific and border enforcement.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to know “the endgame” for Ukraine and that the White House had not provided that.

Mr Kuleba said he anticipated declarations from US politicians “that will cause irritation and induce panic”, but added that what mattered in the end was “the scoreboard”.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message on Monday that he had discussed continued US support at a meeting in Kyiv with a delegation of US members of Congress.

He said Ukraine had to prove that “freedom could overcome hatred and aggression... and, for that, we need unity – unity of all of Europe, unity in America, unity of the entire free world”. REUTERS