The US Senate on Sunday took a crucial step towards the adoption of colossal new aid to Ukraine.
But the granting of this envelope, eagerly awaited in kyiv, risks encountering a categorical refusal from the Trumpist Republicans in the other chamber of Congress.
This Sunday, the Senate, where the Democrats have a narrow majority, voted in favor of putting the text presented by the administration of Joe Biden to a vote, by 67 votes to 27. The bill provides in particular 60 billion for Ukraine and 14 billion for Israel against Hamas.
The package also includes funds for a strategic ally of the United States, Taiwan.
The date of the next vote in the upper house is not yet known, but it could be held at the beginning of the week.
In the House of Representatives, where the Republicans have a narrow majority, the measure will face stiff opposition from right-wing elected officials.
Republicans divided
Two years after the start of the Russian invasion, elected officials from the United States, the main military supporter of Ukraine, are unable to agree on the validation of new funds.
The Democrats are, in the vast majority, in favor.
The Republicans are divided between interventionist hawks, pro-Ukraine, and lieutenants of Donald Trump, much more isolationist.
The latter strongly criticize the continuation of American aid to Ukraine, affirming in particular that their country should not continue to disburse tens of billions of dollars as long as the United States border with Mexico is not “secure” .
But while the bill initially included a reform of migration policy, this was removed from the text having passed this crucial stage on Sunday.
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On Sunday, eighteen Republican elected officials nevertheless supported the bill in the Senate.
“Today, it is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world are on the American Senate,” said the leader of the Republicans in the upper house, Mitch McConnell.
“We did not equip the brave people of Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan with lethal equipment in order to win philanthropic awards (…).
We do it because it is in our own interest,” he added.
“Ukraine is dangerously short of reserves.
If America does not send aid to Ukraine with this national security bill, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has every chance of succeeding,” the leader warned before the vote of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, highlighting the rare fact that the vote is held on a Super Bowl Sunday, the very popular high mass of American football.
A campaign issue between Trump and Biden
The process remains fraught with pitfalls for the envelope which has become an issue in the presidential campaign.
Democratic President Joe Biden is urgently calling for these new funds, while his predecessor Donald Trump is increasing hostile declarations, while ensuring that if he were re-elected in November, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours, without explaining how.
Even without a mandate, the former president recently managed to torpedo the conclusion in Congress of a compromise on the package for Ukraine.
And on Saturday, he threatened, if he returned to the White House, to no longer guarantee the protection of NATO countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even saying that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them.
Joe Biden on Sunday described his comments as “distressing and dangerous”.