The House of Representatives will soon consider a bill on aid to Ukraine
14 February 2024 11:08
The US House of Representatives will not consider the bill on aid to Ukraine approved by the Senate in the near future, as there are more important documents than this one. House Speaker Mike Johnson told journalist Jake Sherman about this, reports 
“I just caught up with Speaker Johnson. I asked him if he was going to put the Senate aid bill on the floor. No, he’s not. “Definitely not right now. We’re in the appropriations process right now. We have tight deadlines, and that’s what the House is focused on,”
– wrote a journalist in X.
Yesterday, 13 February, the US Senate approved a bill to help Ukraine. The document provides for assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan totalling $95.34 billion. $61 billion is earmarked for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $4.83 billion for Taiwan and other US partners in the Indo-Pacific region.
Now the bill must be supported by the US House of Representatives, where Republicans also refuse to vote for aid to Ukraine.
Plan B for the IMF
In the absence of US assistance in the near future, Ukraine will be forced to turn to the IMF. Therefore, the Ukrainian government is currently working on a “plan B” that includes additional measures to meet the IMF’s requirements.
These measures should guarantee the IMF that Ukraine will be able to service its debts if there is no help from its allies under the $15.6bn loan programme. However, it is not yet clear whether these measures will have to be implemented.
The IMF mission is currently in Kyiv to prepare the ground for a meeting in Warsaw on 17 February, where the Ukrainian authorities will begin discussions with IMF representatives on the third review of the Extended Fund Facility. The meeting will decide whether Ukraine will receive the next tranche of $900 million.
In total, under the programme, Ukraine should receive $5.3 billion from the IMF this year. The Ukrainian government has been fulfilling its obligations to the Fund, but there are still concerns that the IMF will want additional guarantees in the event of a lack of US assistance.
“Festival of security agreements”
Against the backdrop of disappointing news from the US Congress, the “Festival of Security Agreements with Ukraine” is gaining momentum, with Western countries guaranteeing our security under bilateral agreements such as the Budapest Memorandum. The UK was the first to sign such an agreement with Ukraine. The next one may be with Canada. In addition, Ukraine is negotiating relevant agreements with five other countries: The United States, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy.
In particular, the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, said that two rounds of talks had already taken place between Ukraine and the United States on the content and content of the relevant agreement with the US government. And French President Macron said he would personally come to Kyiv to finalise the security agreement between Ukraine and France.
Ukraine is desperately trying to gain the support of the world. In particular, the following 5 points of the Ukrainian Formula for Peace were presented at this year’s Davos Economic Forum.
