This time, it should be a formality: the American Senate examines on Tuesday a huge aid plan for Ukraine, adopted on Saturday after months of painful negotiations in the House of Representatives.
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The package, which also includes funds for Israel, Taiwan and an ultimatum to TikTok, could be adopted by the end of the day.
She benefits from the support of elected officials from both sides.
“Let’s not drag things out, let’s not make our friends around the world wait another moment,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, pleading for a quick vote on the text.
“The Senate faces a test,” added Republican tenor Mitch McConnell, calling for the adoption of this enormous military assistance program that Joe Biden has been demanding for months.
“We must not fail.”
“Hard time”
Parliamentarians will begin debating this $95 billion aid plan around 1 p.m. (5 p.m. GMT).
Everything should be much more fluid than the long and difficult negotiations in the House of Representatives, the other component of the American Congress, dominated by the Republicans.
Joe Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday to send him military aid “quickly”, once the text was adopted in the Senate and then signed by him.
It could be a matter of hours, days at most.
Of the total amount presented to the US Congress, the lion’s share — $61 billion — is intended for Ukraine, which faces a complicated situation on the battlefield against Russia.
The Ukrainian army is facing a shortage of new recruits and ammunition, which weakens it in the face of constant pressure from Russian troops in the east.
The situation on the front is expected to get even worse around mid-May and early June, which will be a “difficult period,” Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov warned on Monday.
Israel, TikTok, Taiwan
Volodymyr Zelensky is now counting on a “fast and powerful” aid shipment which “will strengthen our anti-aircraft, long-range and artillery defense capabilities,” he indicated on X, after his telephone conversation with Joe Biden.
The debate in Congress on aid to Ukraine has highlighted divisions between Democrats and Republicans, but also procrastination within the conservative camp itself, against the backdrop of the campaign for the November presidential election.
It will pit Joe Biden against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
On Saturday, at the time of the vote in the House of Representatives, parliamentarians waved Ukrainian flags as a sign of support for Kyiv, to the boos of Trumpist elected officials, opposed to this aid.
The American president and the Democratic Party are in favor of aid to Ukraine, presented as an investment in the security of the United States in the face, according to them, of Russia’s aggressive aims.
The Republicans are increasingly reluctant, and the conservative boss of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has long blocked the text.
He ended up supporting the resumption of military and economic aid, with this justification: “I would rather send munitions to Ukraine than send our boys to fight.”
Among the other parts of the grand plan: $13 billion in military assistance to Israel, at war with Hamas; more than $9 billion to “address the urgent need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and other vulnerable populations around the world”; and $8 billion to stand up to China militarily and help Taiwan.
The text also provides for the banning of the TikTok application in the United States within a few months, unless the social network cuts its ties with its parent company ByteDance, and more broadly with China.
