US President Joseph Biden, faced with House Republicans likely to block US aid to Ukraine, said tonight he plans to make a major speech on the issue and suggested there may be "another way" to help Kiev if obstruction in Congress they last.
"I will soon announce my big speech on this issue, because it is extremely important for the United States and our allies that we remain committed to Ukraine," Biden told reporters at the White House, while speaking on some other topics.
White House officials declined to say when Biden plans to give the speech, and the president did not clarify what alternative method would be for Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia, to receive additional US military aid.
"There is another way to find funding, but I'm not going to get into that right now," the US president said.
Aid to Ukraine, which is approved by Congress, is a source of tension and uncertainty because several Republicans in the House of Representatives are seriously suspicious of, or openly oppose, additional funding for the Ukrainian military.
The president said he was not "concerned" by the resistance because there was broad support for aid from both Democrats and Republicans.
Still, last week's bipartisan deal in the House of Representatives to shore up funding for the federal government came at the cost of not including $13 billion in new aid to Ukraine, the result of pressure from several right-leaning Republicans.
The agreement to temporarily fund the US government and federal services until July 13 was also very expensive for the now former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy.
At the urging of several ultra-conservative Republicans led by Congressman Matt Getac of Florida, McCarthy on Tuesday became the first speaker of the lower house of the US Congress ever to be impeached.
The Republicans, who have a very narrow majority in the House of Representatives, should elect a new president of that institution next week.
McCarthy's arrival in office was followed by multiple filibuster votes by a handful of the most conservative Republican lawmakers, led by Goec, and he became president only after agreeing that his impeachment could be initiated by a single lawmaker—which, thanks to Goec, happened.
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