The collapse of support for Ukraine in Congress took months to materialize, which was exactly what Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had feared.

McConnell had warned that political support for Ukraine was in jeopardy as a small but vocal contingent of fellow Republican lawmakers stepped up their efforts to avoid sending American money abroad to fight Russia.

First in a series of high-profile speeches this summer and then in direct overtures to the White House, the Republican leader who had visited Kiev and prioritized U.S. support for Ukraine sought to steer his party’s far-right flank.

But ultimately, neither McConnell, the White House nor Democrats in Congress could pass a scaled-back $6 billion military and civilian aid package for Ukraine in last week’s deal to avoid a US government shutdown.

Despite overwhelming bipartisan support in Washington for stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the failure to approve aid to Ukraine was a significant setback for an administration seeking to lead a Western alliance to rebuild the fledgling democracy. protection while the fighting continued.

It also shows the dangers that await us in Washington if a hardened group of Republican lawmakers, who make up only a minority in Congress, many allied with Donald Trump, the party’s 2024 presidential frontrunner, use their power to to overcome the will of the majority. The next steps are very uncertain.

It worries me, President Biden acknowledged last week. “But I know there are a majority of members in the House and Senate from both parties who have said they support financing Ukraine.”

Biden said he is preparing for a major speech on U.S. aid to Ukraine and has a plan in the works to ensure the flow of aid after the unrest on Capitol Hill, which was interrupted by the ouster of

the

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy

(R-Bakersfield)

.

As Washington regroups, the sudden shift has unleashed political blame over the White House and Congress’ inability to work around the small but growing minority of lawmakers who are putting aid at risk.

Not a cent more for Ukraine! wrote Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a key Trump ally, arguing that money should be spent on securing the U.S. border with Mexico.

McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, tried to build support

for

In Ukraine for months, since he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev in May.

The senator made repeated speeches, spoke to allies abroad and made the issue his priority among colleagues on Capitol Hill, where Zelensky was welcomed as a hero last year and visited with a follow-up call weeks before the funding crisis.

But after the White House announced Biden’s request for $24 billion in aid to Ukraine in August, McConnell knew it would not get the support needed to succeed, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to talk about it.

McConnell had met with a group of Republican defense hawks in the Senate before the late September deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown, which would typically be the time to also approve the White House spending request for Ukraine.

But Republican senators left McConnell knowing that support for financing Ukraine in general would be lacking.

A week before the deadline, McConnell relayed Biden’s national security advice

ooh

Jake Sullivan, R, said on a call Friday that it would be “impossible for Congress to grant the entire $24 billion request,” the person familiar with the situation said.

Instead, McConnell encouraged the White House to “strongly explore whether it can rely on sending aid to Ukraine in the near term through existing remittance or reprogramming avenues,” the person said.

The White House has been considering smaller amounts of funding in a series of conversations with McConnell’s team this weekend, stressing that aid to Ukraine is critical.

McConnell agreed to do what he could. Days later, the Senate introduced its package to keep the government open for the short term, until November 17, with $6 billion for Ukraine. It passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority.

The problem, however, was that Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill never fully identified Ukraine as a top priority when they resisted House Republican demands for steep budget cuts to keep the government open.

And McCarthy

from Bakersfield,

had its own problems in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

Greene and other hardliners in the House of Representatives had effectively forced McCarthy to withdraw a much smaller amount of Ukrainian security aid funds, $300 million, from an annual defense financing bill.

It was a clear example of how a growing flank of the party, about a hundred Republicans, wrested control from the majority that broadly supported the bill.

It was a sign of trouble to come.

Staring down a potentially devastating government shutdown, the embattled McCarthy then cut $6 billion in aid for Ukraine from the federal funding package before the House of Representatives voted to keep the U.S. government open.

While the House was preparing

September 30 last Saturday

To avoid a shutdown, McConnell called his Republican senators together behind closed doors for a lunch meeting.

McConnell talked about the need to keep support for Ukraine in the final package, but it was clear he had no room for that.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican’s second in command, had also had conversations with McCarthy that morning and had understood from the speaker that the package could not pass if aid to Ukraine was included.

Thune told Republican senators he believed they should move forward with the House version, without money from Ukraine, as the best way to avoid a shutdown, according to

a

Republicans were familiar with the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.

The third-ranking Republican senator, John Barrasso of Wyoming, quickly agreed, according to another Republican granted anonymity to discuss the conversation.

McConnell listened to his colleagues and then changed course.

McConnell came out after lunch and said Republicans would vote against the Senate bill as they waited to see what their counterpart in the House of Representatives would do.

That afternoon, the House approved holding up the package hours before the midnight deadline

ing

government opened. Aid to Ukraine was stopped.

Missing from the final bill are not only the $6 billion in aid to Ukraine, but also pages of text outlining the possibility of transferring money to Ukraine.

It was exactly what McConnell had tried to avoid.

In the aftermath, the White House made clear that McCarthy had made a commitment to Ukraine that went beyond what was in the package.

But when reporters asked McCarthy about it, the speaker said there is no “secret deal with Biden on Ukraine.”

What was there, McCarthy explained, was the assurance that Ukraine’s ability to transfer funds would remain intact. If there was any confusion about that, he said, “We’ll sort it out.”

The next day, McCarthy was removed from office over long-simmering complaints about his leadership, leaving a solution to Ukraine’s financing uncertain.

Biden’s speech on aid to Ukraine is coming soon. The White House is waiting for the House to elect a new speaker. And it is working with Congress to ensure the portability of funds and to provide new support to Ukraine.