Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who replaced a conservative predecessor last year, has condemned Republicans in the U.S. Senate for their recent scuttling of an expansive legislative deal that would have set up additional aid from the U.S. for Ukraine. U.S.-originating security assistance so far has most prominently been in the form of weapons deliveries amid Ukraine’s now expansive war with Russian military forces following a ramping up of hostilities in 2022.
Republicans blocked that legislative deal, which also included reforms around immigration and the border, from even the full breadth of procedural consideration, meaning they shut it down at a vote before voting on final approval.
“Dear Republican Senators of America. Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today. Shame on you,” Tusk said.
Domestically, President Joe Biden has also rather directly condemned the Republicans who launched opposition to the now flattened proposal, accusing them of advancing the interests of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Besides the humanitarian concerns, Biden and others have argued that the U.S. has a strategic interest in seeing Russia’s defeat in Ukraine, since a Russian military emboldened by hypothetical victory in Ukraine could look elsewhere — and there could be openings there should continued GOP front-runner Donald Trump advance his clear antagonism towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense alliance that counts among its members both the U.S. and countries throughout Europe.
Congress could still move additional aid for Ukraine forward, but a vocal portion of the party — particularly a group of House Republicans — has expressed opposition broadly to the very continuance of the United States’ assistance.
Republicans claimed the dual foreign aid-immigration bill was somehow still deficient. Party leadership in the House characterized assistance proposed for migrants with integrating into society as an incentive for undocumented immigration. They also flatly dismissed the seriousness of additional powers proposed for the federal government allowing a border closure between ports of entry in circumstances of particularly high crossings.
