Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, rejected a bilateral aid package for Ukraine that was proposed by the Senate but left open the possibility of a new bilateral foreign aid package, including restrictions on the border with Mexico.
This was reported by CNN with reference to the congressmen who conducted the negotiations.
According to the publication's sources, after Speaker Johnson's meetings with House Republicans, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul took the lead in trying to finalize the proposal for a new bill and reach a consensus among fellow party members to pass the package by the end of March or in April.
CNN interlocutors note that Johnson has not yet taken a position on this bill and has not committed to bringing it to a vote, telling his colleagues that they must first complete work on the legislation on public funding.
However, once that process is completed by mid-March, Republican supporters believe the speaker will allow it to come up for a vote, the publication said, even if it risks a backlash from far-right members of the House of Representatives or even a vote to impeach him from the position.
Asked about the party leadership's support for his bipartisan proposal, one of the leaders of the initiative, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, said: "More than you think. We have to do something."
However, according to CNN, passing the law through the House of Representatives remains an extremely difficult task because Republicans are strongly divided on Ukraine. Ex-president Donald Trump can actually destroy the bill with one post on social networks.
In addition, it will require broad support among Democrats to pass, a daunting task given that the package includes new border restrictions and aid to Israel, which is likely to draw opposition from their left wing.
McCaul told CNN that a group of congressmen is also considering other changes to the bill, including seizing frozen russian assets in the U.S. and their transfer to Ukraine. According to him, the members of this group are considering the possibility of turning part of the aid to Kyiv into an American loan - an idea previously expressed by Trump.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on February 25, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine would need U.S. assistance within a month.
On February 27, the White House announced that the United States will not send its troops to Ukraine.
On February 28, CNN reported that the Pentagon is weighing a decision to provide aid to Ukraine without a decision from the U.S. Congress.
Meanwhile, a pro-Ukrainian Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Brian Fitzpatrick, is preparing to try to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson to approve aid to Ukraine.
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