Everything Congress can (and is willing to) do to help Kyiv

In recent days, the Poltava region, in central Ukraine, has come under numerous Russian attacks: yesterday, Vladimir Putin’s bombs destroyed the Colibrì, a support centre for children with disabilities. Anna Andriienko, who founded this centre, reported that the classrooms, therapy rooms, teaching materials and rehabilitation equipment – which were the only ones of their kind in the entire region – were completely destroyed. Russian forces have also struck other regions, bombing areas already hit in recent days where rescue operations are still under way: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in the last week alone, Russia has launched 115 missiles of various types and over three thousand drones, striking buildings, aid centres and infrastructure, and many regions are without electricity and water: In an attack on a power station during the night between Sunday and Monday, the Russians used KN-23 ballistic missiles, manufactured by North Korea, and of the 36 ballistic missiles launched in total, only four were shot down, because the Patriot interceptors – which are produced exclusively by the Americans – are no longer being supplied. While Putin’s fury raged inhumanely, U.S. President Donald Trump gave his first television interview following his defeat in the mid-term elections. 

Speaking to Ross Douthat, a conservative commentator who spent many years at The New York Times and now works on the long-running CBS programme ‘60 Minutes’, Trump said that ever since the first meeting between the Ukrainians and the Russians, shortly after Putin’s major invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainians had been ‘very disrespectful’ towards Russia. Douthat replied: ‘OK, there’s a certain difference between an invasion and a lack of respect’, but Trump pressed on, saying that the war did not begin whilst he was president, that the hatred between Zelensky and Putin is the main obstacle to peace, that he had been very tough on the Russian president – the toughest of all, that he cannot say who suspended Starlink during those terrible days when the White House put unprecedented pressure on Ukraine to halt attacks on refineries whilst negotiating with Putin over the purchase of diesel, but that Elon Musk restored it, “and now the Ukrainians have it; no one has shown me any evidence that Starlink was shut down; there are a great many lies circulating about this war”.

The about-turn on Ukraine has had no impact on fuel prices nor has it won any votes in the mid-term elections, but Trump has no second thoughts; he continues to equate the aggressor with the victim, denies having granted Putin any legitimacy – which is resulting in an escalation of violence against Ukrainians – and announces that there will be an agreement between the Russians and Ukrainians, brokered by the Americans, which will also involve a review of Europe’s security architecture and from which Ukraine will emerge ‘in a slightly different form from its current one’, meaning that, in addition to having cut aid, arms and intelligence-sharing, Washington is now also forcing Kyiv to make territorial concessions to Russia (Putin wants the whole of the Donbas, including the part he has failed to conquer in nearly five years of war, which is tantamount to asking the Ukrainians to pave the way for the Russians straight to Kyiv).

For days now, there has been discussion of the agreement that is due to be discussed today in Abu Dhabi. On Friday, Special Envoy Jared Kushner had outlined an agreement that included a review of Europe’s security architecture – it was a vague statement, but threatening enough to prompt Europeans to say: that’s out of the question. Yesterday, Kushner posted another statement on social media, in which he repeated a phrase with a significant omission: any agreement, he wrote on Friday, “must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and autonomous decision-making of every nation”. Yesterday, “territorial integrity” was no longer there.

American mediation is a pitfall for Ukraine and for Europeans: whilst the mid-term election results now lead Trump to claim he is relying on diplomacy with Iran – much to the delight of Tehran, which has held firm until now precisely whilst waiting for the military operation to become a fiercely contested electoral issue for Trump’s supporters – conversely, there is no sign of any American willingness to put pressure on Putin rather than on Zelensky. But last week’s election, which came at a very high cost to the Ukrainians, was not in vain: the Democrats, who now hold a majority in Congress, want to restore aid to Ukraine that was suspended when Trump took office. The priority is the passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act for 2027, which provides for the already authorised allocation of $800 million for the USAI (the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative) for this year and next (the USAI has been extended until 2029, with a Senate proposal to increase it by $750 million). This legislation also obliges the Pentagon to provide Kyiv with intelligence-sharing for military operations, and Congress has the power to ensure the effective implementation of the ‘Graham Act’ on sanctions against Russia and to challenge the Administration’s decision to ease restrictions on imports of Russian diesel. Many Democrats are already hard at work, and they can count on Republicans who neither appreciated nor supported Trump’s about-turn: there are quite a few of them.