The US House of Representatives voted to allocate US$300 million to support Ukraine late in the evening of Thursday, 28 September.

As Politico reports, these funds were removed from the draft US defence budget and voted for separately.

 In addition, the House of Representatives passed a US$826 billion defence spending bill.

Although both bills were approved, Democrats fear that the allocation of aid to Ukraine in a separate bill will be presented by Russian propaganda as an abandonment of Ukraine. 

"The Russians are good at propaganda. It will be played as America backing off of its commitment for Ukraine," said Adam Smith, a House Armed Services Committee member. 

Yesterday, it became known that Republicans in the US House of Representatives decided to withdraw US$300 million of aid to Ukraine from the defence spending bill and vote on it separately, despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s promises not to do so. 

The US$300 million in question is unrelated to the US$24 billion in additional funding for Ukraine and related costs that the White House requested in August – which was similarly opposed by far-right Republicans. 

Against this background, the US Senate approved an alternative draft short-term budget resolution, where, among other things, more than US$6.1 billion is provided for additional aid to Ukraine, including US$4.5 billion for defence spending and more than US$1.6 billion for economic support. 

However, Kevin McCarthy has already stated that there will be no votes in the House to support the Senate budget proposal.