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The bill passed over the weekend to avoid a federal government shutdown was a welcome bit of last-minute maneuvering, except for one thing. It did not include additional funding to help Ukraine in its fight against the unlawful Russian invasion.
Lawmakers pledged to vote separately on funds for Ukraine before the 45-day continuing resolution runs out in November.
The weekend vote without funds of Ukraine sends a potentially troubling message: It opens the door to other countries reconsidering their support of Ukraine, which Russian invaded in February 2022, in what it called a “special operation.”
It is clearly an invasion, one full of Russian atrocities. One that has ended the lives of an estimated 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers, according to U.S. officials. Russian bombings have destroyed numerous cities and disruptions at Ukraine ports have impacted the country’s economy and the world food supply.
Western countries, led by the European Union and United States, have supplied the Ukrainian government and military with weapons and financial support. While the U.S. support is among the largest financially, as a share of our country’s GDP, it is among the smallest.
Still, some in Congress, led by conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, are objecting to additional financial support for Ukraine. This would be a mistake and a capitulation to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who is seeking to grow the sphere of Russian influence, by violent means, if necessary.
“What we need to remember is that helping Ukraine fight Putin’s aggression is in our interest,” Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on WVOM on Monday. If Putin were to prevail in Ukraine, Collins said, he wouldn’t stop there. He would likely seize Moldova and then threaten NATO allies such as Poland and the Baltic states. Then, the U.S. could be drawn into a war in Europe, she explained.
“If we can provide Ukraine with the munitions and equipment that it needs, its people are ferocious fighters for their country and they will help stop Putin,” Collins said.
Turning our backs on the people of Ukraine would send the message that ongoing U.S. support cannot be counted on, emboldening Putin.
As Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming suggested abandoning Ukraine would be akin to the refusal by British, French and Italian leaders to stop Adolf Hitler’s 1938 annexation of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudentenland. The Munich Pact was meant to appease Hitler and bring peace. Instead, World World II began a year later.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado also harkened back to World War II in urging more funding for Ukraine. Bennet, a Democrat, briefly held up Saturday’s Senate vote on the funding package because he objected to the lack of money for Ukraine.
In a speech on the Senate floor after Saturday’s votes, Bennet spoke of his mother, who was born in 1938 in Warsaw, Poland, a perilous time for a Jew. Only she, her parents and an aunt escaped alive. He said his mother was bewildered that she had lived long enough to see another land war in Europe.
“We cannot allow our political differences here, our political disputes here, to keep us from delivering the aid that Ukraine needs,” Bennet said.
Given the chaos in the U.S. House with the dismissal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a powerful extreme faction, this will be a very difficult task. But it is the right standard: Lawmakers must put aside their political grandstanding to craft an aid package that continues our support for Ukraine in its fight against Putin and his expansionist goals.