Bipartisan pair of US Senators seeks $54.6B in new aid for Ukraine

A bipartisan pair of senators introduced legislation to provide $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next two years as Russia intensifies its attacks and US-brokered peace negotiations have so far failed, Report informs via The New York Times.

The measure by Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, includes billions of dollars for direct weapons assistance, as well as money to replenish American stockpiles. It faces long odds in Congress given previous Republican opposition to sending more aid to Ukraine, and in light of President Trump’s aggressive campaign to slash spending, particularly foreign assistance.

But its release comes as Trump has significantly shifted his stance on helping Kyiv, including approving having European allies provide lethal aid to Ukraine and then replenish their stocks with American weapons. Some Republicans have followed suit, signaling support for that effort and various other ways of bolstering Ukraine’s defenses against Russian invasion.

The measure’s backers appear to have written it with an eye toward controlling the cost to American taxpayers. Under the plan, as much as a third of the assistance would be financed by revenues from seized Russian assets and through weapons sales to European allies.

The bill would also codify the minerals deal recently struck between the United States and Ukraine, for which there has been outspoken bipartisan backing, allowing revenue generated by the country’s natural resources to be used to reimburse the United States for arming Kyiv.

“There is continued bipartisan resolve to sustain Ukraine’s valiant fight for freedom by helping Ukraine obtain the air defense needed to protect its civilian population centers, including schools and hospitals, from Russia’s relentless drone and missile attacks,” Shaheen said in a statement.

Still, there have been few direct calls from Republicans for the type of military support proposed in the new package. And it is not clear how much of the measure’s cost would ultimately be covered by Russian assets or weapons sales.

Much of the funding is earmarked for procuring new weapons to replace older systems sent to Ukraine. The bill would also vastly increase the president’s ability to unilaterally approve weapons transfers to Ukraine without consulting Congress, increasing so-called drawdown authority from $100 million to $6 billion next year and in 2027.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Congress has approved five aid bills for Ukraine totaling roughly $174 billion, including the most recent one in April 2024. But the spigot has closed since Trump took office. Billions of dollars in unspent aid from the Biden era also remain on the books.