Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center on February 14, 2024 in Washington, DC. /Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Published February 27, 2024
House Speaker Mike Johnson has the fate of a democracy and a people in his hands.
It’s not the United States, which will survive – even if the coming general election results in another existential test for the constitutional system.
The country Johnson has the power to save is Ukraine, two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded, decreeing that it didn’t have the right to exist.
Ukraine’s soldiers – trapped in a World War I-style hellscape of trench warfare – are running out of bullets. There are signs that Russia may be about to break a stalemate and tip the war its way.
Johnson, a backbencher who was the last-ditch choice to lead the mutinous House GOP majority last year, could relieve Ukraine’s agony and help ensure its survival as an independent nation in the coming days. He could allow a vote on a bill that includes $60 billion in aid that the Pentagon says is needed to allow Kyiv to continue to effectively fight. It would likely pass with a comfortable bipartisan majority.
The Louisiana Republican’s reluctance to do so is a commentary on the growing power of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, the sharp turn of his party away from its globalist pro-democracy heritage and perhaps even his own ambition since borrowing Democratic votes to finance Ukraine’s defense could cost him the speakership.
The speaker is coming under extreme pressure on multiple fronts, at home and abroad, as coinciding crises that he’s postponed over his young speakership come to the boil at once. Most immediately, without a budget deal with the Democratic Senate, the government could hurtle into a partial shutdown by the weekend.
His predicament will be highlighted at a meeting of the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday called by President Joe Biden.
The quiet Louisianan is besieged by intensifying calls among Republicans opposed to more Ukraine aid, especially from the pro-Trump wing of his conference, as he seeks to cling to his job longer than his ill-fated predecessor Kevin McCarthy. But Johnson’s lonely dilemma is being sharpened as the administration singles him out as the one man who can thwart or enable Putin’s attempt to wipe Ukraine off the map. President Volodymyr Zelensky starkly warned in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that his country could not succeed in repelling Russia without the aid. Foreign governments that fear the Western coalition against Moscow could crumble without US cash and influence have been calling on the speaker to act. And the pressure of Zelensky’s forces facing battlefield defeats threatens to hand Republicans the blame if desperately needed arms are not soon rushed to the front.
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SOURCE: www.edition.cnn.com
RELATED: France, Netherlands back Czech plan to buy ammunition for Ukraine outside EU
Published February 27, 2024
France and the Netherlands back Czechia’s plan to procure hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds for Ukraine from outside the EU, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told journalists on Feb. 26.
Kyiv is facing critical ammunition shortages, as $61 billion in funding from the U.S. remains stuck in Congress, causing defense aid deliveries to run dry. Reports suggest Ukraine could face a catastrophic shortage of supplies like shells and air defenses within weeks.
Ukraine’s decision to withdraw from the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast on Feb. 17 was widely linked to the issue of a lack of ammunition.
Earlier in February, Czechia began to push a plan to jointly finance the purchase of 450,000 artillery shells outside the EU.
Czech President Petr Pavel said on Feb. 17 that Prague has identified around 800,000 artillery shells abroad that could be sent to Ukraine within weeks if provided funding from other partners.
The plan to use EU money to buy ammunition produced outside the bloc was initially blocked by France, which wants to boost its domestic defense industry, along with Greece and Cyprus.
Macron told reporters at the summit on Ukraine he had convened in Paris on Feb. 26 that France is “totally open” to the plan.
“The Czech proposal is totally consistent with what we’ve done in terms of artillery. We have asked non-EU countries to reach solutions. We will participate in this initiative.”
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SOURCE: www.kyivindependent.com
RELATED: French President Emmanuel Macron won’t rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine
Published February 27, 2024
- European leaders discussed the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine.
- Representatives at a Monday meeting did not reach any consensus about putting troops on the ground.
- But French President Emmanuel Macron said the prospect couldn’t be ruled out.
European leaders discussed the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine during a conference this week just days after the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the Monday meeting that the prospect of sending Western troops to Ukraine could not “be ruled out.”
Representatives at the meeting did not reach consensus about the question of putting troops on the ground in Ukraine, Macron said, though he added that “we cannot exclude anything,” according to CNN.
The meeting in Paris this week included representatives of the European Union’s 27 member countries, including 21 heads of state.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda told The Associated Press that the most intense conversation during the meeting centered around whether Western troops could be sent to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied the country with weapons and tactical assistance since the war began, but the deployment of troops on the ground would mark a major escalation in the war.
“We will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war,” Macron said after the discussions, according to reports.
Macron didn’t offer additional details about which countries broached the topic of sending troops to Ukraine.
The Paris gathering comes just one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a rare acknowledgment of difficulties, saying in a Sunday address that Ukraine’s victory is reliant on ongoing support from the West.
Russia has racked up a series of military wins in recent months. As a result, Macron urged European leaders to consider the collective safety of the continent by doubling down on assistance to Ukraine, The AP reported.
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SOURCE: www.bsinessinsider.com
