Zelenskyy To Pitch Ukraine To Senate As US-Mexico Border Talks Stall

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will deliver a virtual address to US Senators today as Democrats attempt to force movement on President Biden’s USD$106 billion national security supplemental request. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Gen. Charles Q. Brown, and DNI Avril Haines will attend to deliver a likely pessimistic prognosis of the Ukrainian war effort.

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has teed up a procedural vote on the package for Wednesday which will almost certainly be blocked by Republicans as it lacks US-Mexico border reforms critical to GOP support.
• Border policy is arguably the most intractable issue in Congress and offers little hope of bicameral compromise without major concessions from Democrats which would risk blowback from progressives and immigration advocacy groups at the general election.
• Senate negotiations of border reform collapsed on Friday and have yet to resume but negotiators have indicated that the group is still working.
• The White House has made an additional economic appeal to Republicans by releasing data which suggests that ‘red states’ will receive a manufacturing boost from defence contracts.
• Axios notes: “Six of the top 10 states receiving investment from four previous Ukraine packages are in states that former President Trump won in 2020."
• In response to the appeal, Senators JD Vance (R-OH) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), two prominent Ukraine-sceptics, wrote: “War is not a business venture, and the United States is more than just an economy. We are a nation with discrete geopolitical objectives and security priorities…”