A discharge petition to bring a bill to the floor of the House to send additional military aid to Ukraine has reached the required 218 signatures to force a vote, which is expected in the coming weeks.
The Ukraine Support Act was introduced last year by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and would provide Ukraine with $1.3 billion in military aid with an option to provide up to $8 billion in loans for additional military equipment. In addition to the military aid, the bill would also increase sanctions on Russia.
The Trump administration has continued sending weapons to Ukraine, but through a NATO initiative known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), under which US allies pay for the military equipment. The bill was not supported by the White House or House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), which is why it required a discharge petition.
Meeks had been trying to gather enough signatures for months, and California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who just switched his party affiliation from Republican to Independent, was the 218th lawmaker to sign on. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Don Bacon (NE) had already signed the petition.
The news comes after Russia and Ukraine returned to full-scale war following a three-day ceasefire that failed to hold, though there did appear to be a de-escalation of attacks. While the US and Russia have insisted recently that the diplomatic efforts to end the war have continued, there’s no sign that the four-year-old conflict will end any time soon.
Russia continues to maintain that it won’t end the war until Ukraine cedes what territory it still controls in the Donbas, something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refuses to do. Ukraine continues to be rocked by corruption scandals, as Andriy Yermak, a former top aide to Zelensky, has been charged in a graft probe, and polling shows that the majority of Ukrainians believe government corruption poses a greater threat to the country’s development than Russia.
