[Salon] The U.S. Congress threw Ukraine under a bus in its bill to avert a shutdown



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-02/the-us-congress-threw-ukraine-under-a-bus-in-its-bill-to-avert-a-shutdown?cmpid=BBD100223_politics

If you’re Volodymyr Zelenskiy right now you’ll take little solace from Joe Biden’s earnest assurances that the US “will not walk away” from Ukraine.

And if you’re Vladimir Putin in Russia you will draw the logical conclusion that Kyiv was just thrown under the bus when funding for Ukraine was left out of a spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

Congress is also facing a mutiny from far-right House members who opposed sending more assistance to Ukraine.

That’s $6 billion in aid which is no longer guaranteed. Washington is a Ukrainian lifeline in its defense against Russia’s invasion heading into another long winter. Biden probably saw this coming, so some funding was front-loaded, but the changing mood in the US ahead of 2024 elections is unmistakable.

Back in June, Ukraine had the momentum. The counteroffensive had begun and Russian mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin was on his march to Moscow in an affront to Putin, his boss. Two months later he was declared dead in an unexplained plane crash.

Suddenly, after Zelenskiy’s return to the US, where the reception was less warm than last Christmas, the bad news is piling on.

In Slovakia, Robert Fico is set to return to power. He would join Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in being a contrarian pro-Russian voice in the 27-nation European Union.

Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite network has been vital to Ukraine’s defense effort, posted a photoshopped image of Zelensky on his social media platform X yesterday ridiculing Ukraine’s requests for help.

The caption read: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.” Flavia Krause-Jackson

A Ukrainian soldier on the frontline on Sept. 22.  Photographer: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Global Must Reads

Fico’s victory in Slovakia delivers a fresh blow to Western unity and adds to the tide of nationalist and populist forces in the EU that have tapped into voter frustration over the pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, and fatigue over the war in Ukraine. Slovakia’s president today will ask him to form a government, kicking off a potentially lengthy coalition negotiation process.



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