NYT: Classified Briefing On Ukraine In US Senate Turns Into Screaming Match

How the debate went and how it all ended.

Secret briefing at which Democrats must convince Republicans to vote for military aid to Ukraine and Israel, failed, having turned into some sort of a screaming match.

Об этом пишет The New York Times.

“A classified briefing with U.S. President’s administration officials called to shore up support devolved into a partisan screaming match, with Republicans angrily accusing Democrats of trying to steamroller over their demands for a border crackdown,” the newspaper writes.

This took place on the eve of a critical test vote in the Senate on a $110.5 billion emergency spending bill.

NYT notes that the disruption of the briefing severely dimmed the prospects for any bipartisan agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats.

“We are about to abandon Ukraine,” Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said.

“When Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country, they will rue the day they decided to play politics with the future of Ukraine’s security,” he said of Republicans.

Republican senators leaving the briefing said they were outraged that administration officials had refused to answer their questions about border security.

“They want tens of billions of dollars to help our friends and allies overseas, but they’re not willing to do what’s necessary to prevent a potential crisis at the border,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

NYT writes that the planned vote on the bill to help Ukraine “comes at perhaps the most uncertain moment for the beleaguered nation since the first chaotic months of the war”.

The publication stresses that Ukraine urgently needs more ammunition and other weapons to try to turn the tide on the battlefield.

Some Pentagon officials deny White House claims that military aid to Ukraine will soon end. They expect the remaining $4.8 billion in aid to last until the spring.

At the same time, Putin made it clear that he was counting on a long war: almost a third of the Russian budget for the next year, approximately $109 billion, will be allocated to “national defense,” writes the NYT.