DEADLOCK

Zelensky Cancels U.S. Senate Meeting Amid Ukraine Funding Dispute

The change in plans occurred just a day before the Senate is scheduled to vote on Joe Biden’s $106 billion bill, which includes over $60 billion for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled his Tuesday afternoon confidential briefing to ask U.S. senators for additional funding to combat Russia’s invasion. “Something happened at the last minute,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at his weekly press conference, according to The New York Times. The change in plans occurred just a day before the Senate is scheduled to vote on Joe Biden’s $106 billion bill, which includes over $60 billion for Ukraine. Senate Republicans have argued against the legislation, claiming that it doesn’t provide enough security for the U.S.-Mexico border. The newspaper reported that Schumer proposed that Republicans come up with a border amendment to the bill, but they rejected the offer, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying, “I hope all of our members vote no.” Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that if Congress doesn’t agree to support the war effort, there would be a “very high possibility” that they would lose.