Senate Democrat sees ‘a chance’ of more Ukraine funding in lame duck session

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday there is a chance that Congress could pass additional funding for Ukraine ahead of the transition to a Republican-controlled Congress and President-elect Trump’s administration, which is likely to oppose more support for Kyiv.

Kaine said that any Senate-approved package would likely face a major hurdle to passage in the Republican-controlled House, where an increasing number of GOP lawmakers oppose additional aid and will want to defer to Trump, who has been skeptical of the cost of arming Ukraine and promised to end the war.

“A chance, a chance – I mean, I'm not saying a likelihood, but I'm saying a chance,” Kaine said about more funding for Ukraine.

“There’s going to be a battle about all kinds of priorities here at year end and just knowing the current lineup in the Senate – in the Senate there’s a chance but the House will be tough.”

Kaine said a likely path for more funding would be as part of an appropriations bill.

But Senate Republicans are unlikely to play ball on more Ukraine funding.

“Things obviously are in a state of flux," said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"President Trump says he's going to resolve that — he has a habit of doing what he says he's gonna do. And right now, I think it's important everybody give him the space to do that,” he said of the war in Ukraine.

And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was officially nominated on Wednesday to serve as Trump’s secretary of State, suggested Ukraine funding was not an immediate concern.

“Let’s wait until the new administration's in place before we can figure that… We still have to fund the government next month,” he said.

The Biden administration has an estimated $6 billion in funding for Ukraine that it will dole out before January 20, but is balancing military equipment it sends to Ukraine with the battlefield needs and the stocks available from the Department of Defense.

Ukrainian forces are facing enormous challenges on the frontline against Russian aggression, battling a lack of manpower and fatigue after more than two and a half years of war, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has called for the Biden administration to green-light Ukraine’s military to use Western-provided long-range missiles to strike at targets inside Russia, a request President Biden has largely resisted over concerns of escalation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.