Ukraine sympathizers carry placards and raise a Ukrainian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol as the Senate works through the weekend on a $95.3 billion aid bill for Ukraine and Israel on February 11, 2024 in Washington, DC is working.
Roberto Schmidt | Getty Images
Ukraine’s success against Russia in the war has become a question of U.S. credibility, Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, told CNBC.
“Ukraine’s success is now a question of US credibility. And if U.S. support for Ukraine stopped, U.S. allies around the world would notice and start hedging,” he told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Tuesday.
Aid to Ukraine has become a hotly contested issue among U.S. lawmakers in recent months, with an aid package that would provide around $61 billion in aid to the country currently stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill passed the U.S. Senate in February but was met with intense controversy in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Many Republican politicians called for tying the aid to funding national security efforts at the U.S. southern border, and there was discussion about turning the Senate-approved aid package into a loan package.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on the social media platform X this week that he had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that a loan was the most likely outcome.
“During my meeting with President Zelensky, I informed him that given the crisis at the southern border of the United States and our overwhelming debt, President Trump’s idea of converting United States aid into an interest-free, forgivable loan was the most likely path. “Forward,” he said.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and former US president, has long criticized US support for Ukraine, claiming the issue is not American. Trump has also indicated that if re-elected he would consider allowing Russia to take over parts of Ukraine and has previously spoken positively about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s messages were mixed, however, as he also said he would do more than President Joe Biden’s administration to support Ukraine. His rhetoric has raised questions and concerns about what U.S. support for Ukraine would look like and whether it might even end if he is re-elected.
Ukraine has repeatedly called on the US to move forward with the adopted bill. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last week that he had met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss how the bill could be passed.
“Failure to continue supporting Ukraine would seriously weaken U.S. leadership around the world and endanger U.S. national security,” Kuleba said in a post on social media platform X after the meeting.
Polish politician Sikorski also appealed to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday to allow a vote on further support for Ukraine, saying the additional funding would not leave Ukraine and its allies behind on Russia.
He said he hoped financial support from Ukraine could come before the U.S. presidential election, scheduled to take place in November. Biden is still confident the vote will pass, Sikorski said. A Polish delegation traveled to the White House last week to meet with Biden.
In the meantime, other countries must lead by example, he added.
“What we can do to help your legislature make a decision is to set a good example: Poland spends well over 3% of its GDP on defense,” Sikorski told CNBC.
He also said that taking into account the funds pledged by European institutions and other member states, they have provided significantly more aid to Ukraine than the US, suggesting that this figure is about twice as high as that of the US
“So we feel like we’re giving the United States a good encouragement, a good example to follow,” Sikorski said.
Research from the Council on Foreign Relations published last month found that U.S. aid to Ukraine far exceeded aid from other countries but ranked second among all EU institutions. It also said many European countries made larger contributions relative to the size of their economies.
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2024-03-20 13:00:10
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