Congress should approve aid to Ukraine

A Russian missile and drone attack earlier this month devastated a tall, heavily-populated apartment building located in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. “Five or six explosions — and then boom!” recalled resident Viktor Tyschenko, 75. “We thought our lives were over.”

This latest Russian attack on residential buildings, including a supermarket and gas station, served no military purpose other than to terrorize Ukraine’s citizenry. It is one of many war crimes suffered by civilians in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. But time is running out for Ukraine, which lacks vital armaments needed to defend itself. This crisis comes just as its biggest ally — the United States — seems to be faltering in spirit.

In Congress, a shameful display of isolationism by the Republican Party prevented Ukraine from getting $60 billion in much-needed aid. A bipartisan bill to speed up and increase production of armaments for Ukraine was part of a $118 billion package that included aid for Israel and Taiwan and humanitarian relief. But this emergency foreign aid plan fell apart when it was tied to a compromise deal calling for tougher measures at the U.S. border that was rejected after former President Donald Trump said he wanted to keep immigration as an issue in the campaign. This head-spinning collapse left Ukraine’s backers dumbfounded.

Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have cobbled together a new deal. It provides essentially the same amount of aid for Ukraine and Israel, without the domestic border provisions. This Ukraine and Israel aid package must be approved swiftly in our national interest. We cannot afford to abandon — or even delay — our military support for Ukraine. It is facing an existential crisis as Russian President Vladimir Putin pursues a relentless campaign to keep the territory he seized illegally inside Ukraine and push forward for more in the spring. While Ukraine has managed to shoot down many incoming missiles during this war, more sophisticated attack drones, like the one that hit Kyiv, have evaded detection with devastating consequences. American military equipment will help President Volodymyr Zelenskyy defend his people and hopefully prevail in this fight.

President Joe Biden and Congress have already supplied $75 billion in aid to Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is no clear outline of an acceptable deal that can end the fighting. Ukraine's men and women are in a grinding, bloody war that could have easily claimed many lives of American soldiers if the Russians advanced across the border of NATO-allied countries in Western Europe, requiring a U.S. response. That is the biggest fear about Putin, who undoubtedly took comfort in the critical and irresponsible comments about NATO by former President Donald Trump over the weekend. 

From this vantage, the additional funding to Ukraine is a small price to pay.