House Speaker Johnson promises to approve aid to Ukraine "immediately", without specifying timeline

Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, promised to put aid to Ukraine to a vote "immediately" after the resolution of budget issues, he announced at a weekly press conference.

According to him, after considering the issue of the US budget, the House will focus on additional assistance to US allies.

At the same time, the speaker did not name the exact dates of both the budget approval and the consideration of assistance.

Congress plans to pass a budget by March 22 to avoid a temporary shutdown of the US government.

Johnson said that the budget issues are already "practically agreed".

"They should be voted on already this week, although they were preceded by very tough negotiations," the lawmaker stated.

After March 22, the lower chamber of the Senate goes on another recess, and congressmen will resume their work only on April 9.

Earlier, Johnson told Republican senators that he is ready to develop his own version of the bill on aid to Ukraine. It is assumed that it will assume a form of a loan or a lend-lease act.

As Bloomberg reported, Republicans in the House of Representatives are working on their own bill on aid to Ukraine, the main idea of which is to confiscate Russian assets to pay for military aid to Kyiv.

On February 14, 2024, US President Joe Biden called on the speaker of the House of Representatives to immediately put to a vote the bill on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

On February 26, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Johnson had promised him to do "everything" to continue aid to Ukraine.

On February 29, Congress leaders at a meeting with Biden could not agree on aid to Ukraine.

On March 12, the United States announced $300 million in military aid to Ukraine, including artillery shells and ammunition for HIMARS. The supply of ATACMS has not been officially announced.