The US has been propping up the Ukraine both economically and militarily because the Biden Administration wants a proxy war in Ukraine.
The Ukraine's pre war GDP was on the order of 70 billion dollars and we have been giving them direct cash payments to pay salaries for government officials, the military, their pension system and and their welfare/war relief system in addition to giving them weapons.
When this money and weapons aide dries up, the Ukraine economy will crash and their military will shut down almost immediately.
They Ukrainians are almost out of US supplied weapons and war bucks to pay Ukrainians salaries and to float the economy as well as being out of the major weapons needed to fight Russia.
The Russians are making big gains because the Ukrainians don't have weapons to fight back.
What is needed is a cease fire to end the war but Biden and his European counterparts are a bad political position.
They do not want to explain how they have weakened their military's and bankrupt their treasuries to get a worse peace settlement than they could have had in the peace agreement drafted first weeks of the conflict that they torpedoed because they wanted to fuel a proxy war in Ukraine.
In the process, they have killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians (almost certainly over half a million and probably more - both sides are lying about their casualties) and destroyed much of the Ukraine's infrastructure while at the same time blocking any peace negotiations to obtain a cease fire and end to the conflict.
Ukraine has lost the war and we are in the end game. The funding passed by Congress will not change that - all it can do is delay the inevitable collapse.
It is an election year and the Democrats are desperate to either delay the collapse of the Ukraine that they have engineered until after the election or to figure out how to blame the Republicans for the election.
Speaker Johnson had two pretty bad options
The first is to not pass the admittedly horrendous Ukraine funding bill and watch the Ukraine collapse economically and militarily in a matter of weeks.
The second was to pass a really horrible Ukraine aid package on Democrat's terms to possibly ( but not certainly) delay the collapse of the Ukraine until after the 2024 election with hopes that Donald Trump takes office and provides the new leadership needed to enter into peace talks and end the conflict.
Both are really bad options but the aid package holds out hope for Ukraine while bolstering Taiwan's defense at a time when China is working overtime to fuel the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East in order further it's military ambitions in Aisa - specifically to takeover control of Taiwan
The defeat of Ukraine will be a geopolitical and economic disaster for the entire world.
It will result in a massive post war humanitarian crisis following the Ukraine's defeat and economic collapse. The defeat of Ukraine may also give rise to war in Taiwan by the Chinese
Johnson has had little to no responsibility for the war in Ukraine and he has had dealing with this disaster forced upon him at the worst possible time.
If the funding passed keeps Ukraine alive long enough for a Trump Administration to get a shot a brokering a peace agreement it will money well spent.
If Trump does not get elected, we are facing national suicide and the Ukraine will be the least of our problems
“The first is to not pass the admittedly horrendous Ukraine funding bill and watch the Ukraine collapse economically and militarily in a matter of weeks.
The second was to pass a really horrible Ukraine aid package on Democrat’s terms to possibly ( but not certainly) delay the collapse of the Ukraine until after the 2024 election with hopes that Donald Trump takes office and provides the new leadership needed to enter into peace talks and end the conflict.”
I think the first option of not passing it is actually a good one. First, it will save countless Ukrainian lives in a war that Ukraine can’t win. It will stop the misery now rather than went Putin wins in the future and more lives are lost.
Delaying the war does nothing but prolong misery, makes Biden look like he was true to his word about Ukraine, makes Trump look like he is supporting a man that goes against the wishes of his base. However, there is possibly another consideration. The US secretly sent weapons to Ukraine, and this aid package covers the cost of that. The account is now closed on Ukraine. Zelinsky can’t burn through it all in a month’s time and then start demanding that the US give more money and weapons. If Zelinsky now wants more weapons, he has to pay for it.