American congressmen tell what was discussed at closed briefing on aid to Ukraine

The U.S. congressmen have told about the course of the closed briefing, which discussed the vote for the aid package for Ukraine.

This is reported by the European Pravda online media outlet with reference to CNN.

The senators note that the meeting was tense but did little to break the impasse.

According to the channel, the briefing turned into a heated argument with shouting, as a number of lawmakers were unhappy with the refusal to include tougher immigration policies in the aid package.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the dispute erupted when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma to speak on the border instead of asking reporters about Ukraine.

Schumer added that one of the Republicans "showed disrespect and started yelling at one of the generals, asking him why they didn't go to the border."

CNN's sources said Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas shouted.

Cotton himself said that the participants of the briefing "refused to answer any questions about the crisis at the border or what we can do to solve this crisis."

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said there was tension in the room at the beginning of the meeting because "no one was talking about the border."

Republican senators called the briefing a waste of time because they argued it did not discuss information that was not already known or available to the general public. Some Republicans even left the briefing early.

"It was more dramatic because you have an entire political party that seems willing to flush support for Ukraine and Israel down the toilet because they'd rather have a wide-open border than support Ukraine and Israel," Senator Kevin Cramer said.

Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said his party wants to help both Ukraine and Israel, but tougher border security measures are needed.

"They don't want to do that. That's why the Republicans just leave the briefing because the people who are there don't want to discuss what it takes to reach an agreement," he said.

Senator Roger Marshall said his Republican colleagues would have liked more focus on the border during the briefing and were disappointed by the lack of conversation on the topic.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner emphasized that the consequences of ending aid to Ukraine "will haunt" the United States for decades.

"Intelligence has been saying for months that Putin thinks he can wait out the West and wait out America, and what I don't understand from some of my friends is whether we are ready to prove him right," he added.

Representatives of both parties have been in talks to reach a compromise, but Senator Chris Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator, told reporters that talks broke down because Republicans refused to back down.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the last moment canceled his speech at the closed briefing in the U.S. Senate on aid to Ukraine, which was supposed to take place online.

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