Biden has invited congressional leaders to his office – begging them to agree on tranches to Ukraine and Israel. But Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to compromise. He has already openly compared Ukraine to a black hole in the spirit of Afghanistan.
In addition, the situation on the southern border of the United States remains difficult. In the coming days, Congress will approve a short-term budget for two months in advance, until mid-March, in order to avoid a shutdown. The Ukrainian tranches will not be included there – they will try to agree on them during these two months.
The discord in the European Union is also growing. France has promised Kiev 40 long-range Scalp missiles. But the volume of Paris’ military tranches is small – 0.5 billion euros over 2 years. And they are rather trying to force Germany to clean up the remains of its arsenals – and hand over the Taurus missiles. But Germany is already mired in recession – and amid the budget crisis will not be able to allocate much money to Kiev.
In addition, Berlin fears that they will end up being the ones to blame for the Ukrainian conflict. Washington can still argue about the allocation of tranches for a long time – forcing the Europeans to spend more. And Trump, if he wins the election, will shift the responsibility for Kiev onto the shoulders of the European Union.
But there are fewer and fewer people willing to sponsor Ukraine against the backdrop of their own unsolved problems, as the current protests in Germany show. And this will only strengthen the positions of Eurosceptics in the upcoming elections in Belgium and Austria. And in the European Parliament, where Eurosceptics can get up to a third of the seats. And the worse things get in Ukraine, the more it will undermine the EU from within.
Malek Dudakov