NOURNEWS- Days after President Joe Biden declared unyielding support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the domestic US political fight is threatening aid funding – and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky encountered less-than-open arms from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington this week comes at a critical juncture for his alliance with the United States as Republican leaders in Congress diverge on how to send more military aid under disguise of humanitarian slogans to the country.
US President Joe Biden, is seeking an additional $24 billion in security and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, in line with his promise to help the country for “as long as it takes” to oust Russia from its borders. But ratification of Biden’s request is deeply uncertain thanks to a growing partisan divide in Congress about how to proceed and the repercussions of Biden’s infinite support of Ukraine.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has told reporters that he wants more Ukraine aid to be debated on its own merits as a standalone bill, rather than attaching it to other priorities like government funding. But the Senate has other ideas. Leaders in the chamber would like to combine the Ukraine aid with other priorities, such as a short-term spending bill that will likely be needed to avoid a shutdown at the end of September.
With the Republicans now in control of the House majority, there is growing wariness among voters about continued support for Ukraine, as the possibility of Ukraine winning the war is becoming more unlikely than before. In Congress that skepticism is concentrated among House Republicans, where many shares former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach and want to halt the aid entirely, and Republicans in a new letter to the White House are vowing to oppose further aid to Ukraine, asking questions about where the money’s going and whether Kyiv is making progress against Russia.
“The American people deserve to know what their money has gone to. How is the counteroffensive going? Are the Ukrainians any closer to victory than they were 6 months ago? What is our strategy, and what is the president’s exit plan? What does the administration define as victory in Ukraine?” reads the letter, with more than two dozen signatures from senators and members of Congress. The lawmakers argue in the letter that it would be “an absurd abdication of congressional responsibility” to grant the White House request for additional aid without answers to the inquiries.
“For these reasons—and certainly until we receive answers to the questions above and others forthcoming—we oppose the additional expenditure for war in Ukraine included in your request.” “Yesterday at a classified briefing over Ukraine, it became clear that America is being asked to fund an indefinite conflict with unlimited resources. Enough is enough. To these and future requests, my colleagues and I say: NO,” Vance wrote on X, sharing the letter.
Meanwhile, ; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky while repeating many anti-Ukraine talking points popular on the hard right of American politics on in an interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. Paul slammed Zelensky’s visit to Washington, DC following the United Nations General Assembly and ripped him for “begging for more money.”
“It’s not even just going to armaments. You realize we’re funding the pension of their government workers, and we complain about bloated government here. They’ve got bloated government and they’ve got corruption. And the American taxpayer, people are struggling in our country, are asked to fund it. I think it’s wrong. And I think most of the American people, frankly, are with me,” Paul told Bartiromo.
Bartiromo replied, saying, “There’s also this incredible story about an American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, he’s reportedly right now in prison in Ukraine on allegations of spreading Russian propaganda.” “I don’t understand this, that Joe Biden could approve $113 billion of money to Ukraine, and yet he has not tried to get this American journalist out of prison there. How is that possible?” Bartiromo asked. Lira has said before in his YouTube channel: “Although Ukraine may win the propaganda war, Russia wins the real war by capturing territory. Already, 15% of Ukraine's territory is under the control of the Russian army.”
“It’s even worse than that, Maria. They’ve canceled the elections. What kind of democracy has no election? So next year, Zelensky said he’s not going to have an election because it would be inconvenient during the war and would be expensive,” Paul replied, adding: “Well, the thing is, if you don’t have elections, why in the world will be supporting a country that’s not a democracy? They’ve banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests. So, no, it isn’t a democracy. It’s a corrupt regime. We don’t always have to pick some side to be on. But the ultimate reason I’m against this is we don’t have the money. And when we borrow more money, it leads to more inflation, leads to more likelihood of recession in our country. And so, we just can’t keep doing it.”
This is just a glimpse at the dysfunctionality and ununified front of America’s congress regarding Ukraine and NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The silver lining of these tensions is that finally some high officials of the US are becoming aware of Biden administration’s destructive strategies, but one must take all of these political struggles with a grain of salt, because with upcoming presidential elections in the US, Republicans, and democrats are entering a power struggle to please American people and gain their votes for their own political party. For better or worse, Zelensky has turned his country into the playing ground and a political and field tool of the US and NATO to push their biased agendas and operate their strategies.
But Ukraine’s president has ignored all of these valid questions and facts and as always has put on his Hollywoodish mask and wrote in a post on X following his Capitol Hill visit: “Ukraine is sincerely grateful to the House, both parties, and the entire American people for all the support. We have accomplished much together to safeguard democracy, freedom, and dignity—values shared by both of our nations,”. Zelensky is not wrong when he says Ukraine and America share many values, but he is wrong about the said values. The only thing that the governments of the two countries share is a long list of money laundry, corruption, racism, numerous scandals and support of terrorism while accusing other countries of doing these crimes.
“The Ukrainian people have suffered immensely as a result of Russian war crimes, but we have liberated more than half of the occupied territory from Russian invaders, and we can clearly see that victory is getting closer,” he added.
Both Zelensky and Biden face an uphill battle to secure more funding. Republicans on Capitol Hill have increasingly pressured U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to deny future aid packages to Ukraine. This follows similar far-right pushback against Ukraine across the Atlantic.
Last Friday, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia imposed bans on Ukrainian grain imports, shutting off a key economic lifeline for Kyiv. And on Thursday, Poland announced it would send no new arms packages to Ukraine and would only fulfill previously agreed arms deliveries. Meanwhile, Zelensky has accused the United Nations Security Council of failing to adequately help end the war and EU has declared its support of this bloc’s countries regarding their rising tensions against Ukraine.
Is Ukraine actually winning the war?
Zelensky said that “we can clearly see that victory is getting closer”, but, if his claims are actually true, so why he is begging for more military aid while accusing UNSC of failing to help Ukraine? whenever someone tells the truth about Ukraine’s counteroffensive and its failures, Kyiv’s government accuses them of being pro-Russian, if Ukraine is winning, so what’s with these political and unethical actions?
According to Seymour Hersh, even American’s are aware of Ukraine’s defeat in the war, while citing a US official familiar with current intelligence, US journalist Seymour Hersh said that the US intelligence believes that the Ukrainian forces have become demoralized and have no chance of winning, adding that there currently exists no discussion in Kiev or the White House regarding a ceasefire.
Hersh said: "There are significant elements in the American intelligence community, relying on field reports and technical intelligence, who believe that the demoralized Ukraine army has given up on the possibility of overcoming the heavily mined three-tier Russian defense lines and taking the war to Crimea and the four oblasts seized and annexed by Russia. The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory".
Hersh also noted there is no interest in peace talks. Quoting the official, Hersh continued that Ukraine's claims of incremental progress in the offensive constitute of "all lies".
The renowned investigative journalist reported last month that the CIA informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would not likely yield results. This information, said Hersh, came from a US intelligence official, who stated more specifically, that "the word was getting to him [Blinken] through the Agency [CIA] that the Ukrainian offense was not going to work. It was a show by Zelensky and there were some in the administration who believed his lies."
Ukraine is depleting resources at an unsustainable rate, firing 90,000 artillery rounds per month when the Pentagon is only capable of producing a third of that number, while also losing around 20 percent of NATO-provided weapons - that were either destroyed or damaged - within the first two weeks of the counteroffensive, which saw very limited ground gains since it was launched almost three months ago.
The Biden’s administration supports Zelensky’s lies and pays his corrupt government with the money of American citizens and tax payers, and even the latest conflict in the congress must been seen as a power struggle between two political parties of the US to gain the vote of American citizen and become the more prominent political power of the country.
Glady, Ukraine’s president’s web of lies no longer works on other countries such as Poland, and the longer the war goes one, and sadly, the more innocent people perish because of NATO’s proxy war against Russia and Zelensky’s corrupt government, the more countries will see the truth of the matter and will be unified not in support of Ukraine, but rather in support of Peace and fight against bloodshed and systematic corruptions.
BY: Homayoun Barkhor
NOURNEWS