The Ukraine aid bill is in danger of collapsing in the Senate as Biden makes a final plea

President Biden’s sweeping emergency spending measure to fund the war in Ukraine was on the brink of collapse in Congress on Wednesday, as Republicans prepared to block it in the Senate over their demands for unrelated measures to curb migration to the United States would crack down on.

With a critical late afternoon vote looming, Mr. Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill urged Republicans in increasingly urgent terms to drop their opposition and pass the $111 billion spending bill, warning that their refusal to do so would be a historic failure. that would play into the hands of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The measure would accelerate about $50 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and another $14 billion to Israel, as well as money to counter threats in the Indo-Pacific region and strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border.

The money for Ukraine, which would also receive a new boost in economic and humanitarian aid, was by far the most substantial part of the legislation. It has also been the biggest point of contention as Republicans in Congress have increasingly turned against funding the war effort there.

“Make no mistake: Today’s vote will long be remembered, and history will judge harshly those who turned their backs on the cause of freedom,” Biden said at the White House. He said Republicans were “willing to literally put Ukraine on the battlefield and harm our national security in the process.”

Mr. Biden said he was calling on Congress to “do the right thing.”

“Stand up against Putin’s tyranny,” he added. “Stand for freedom.”

But Republicans, even those who have been ardent supporters of continued U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort, appeared unmoved and unwilling to abandon their insistence on major changes in immigration policy as the price for more aid for Kiev.

“Apparently some of our colleagues would rather let Russia trample on a sovereign nation in Europe than do what is necessary to maintain America’s own sovereign borders,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and minority leader, said on the Senate floor. “They are convinced that open borders are worth jeopardizing security around the world.”

The almost certain demise of the legislation in the Senate meant that it was extremely unlikely that Ukraine would be able to secure additional US aid before the end of the year – and possibly beyond. It is unlikely that Speaker Mike Johnson, who has told Senate leaders that a Ukraine bill without tough border enforcement measures would not pass the Republican-led House, would put a broad emergency spending bill on the floor without the Senate momentum behind it .

Biden’s comments underscored a wave of warnings from administration and Ukrainian officials in recent days that, absent a new influx of funding from the United States, Ukraine will run out of weapons by the end of the year to counter Russia’s invasion to decline. Fighting in Ukraine has largely reached a stalemate after a Ukrainian counter-offensive to hold back Russian forces largely fell short of its objectives.

But dire assessments and dire warnings have done little to advance progress in the Senate, which on Wednesday had become an arena of finger-pointing as Republicans and Democrats each tried to pin the blame for Ukraine’s dire conditions on their opponents.

“You can’t say, ‘I’m for Ukraine, but only if I get this completely unrelated policy implemented,’” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, as he castigated Republicans for trying to use Ukraine’s fate to further their restrictive immigration agenda. “You can’t be in favor of stopping Putin from taking over a country by force and then voting against giving Ukraine the means to do exactly that.”

It seemed highly unlikely that bipartisan Senate negotiations on border measures, which collapsed last weekend, would resume after the failed vote.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, made a last-ditch effort this week to entice Republicans to vote for the measure by offering them the chance to add their favored limit provisions as amendments to the spending bill. But to do so, they would need 60 votes, meaning Democrats would have to support them, a dim prospect.

Mr. Biden also said he would be willing to make “significant compromises” on border provisions if Republicans supported funding for Ukraine. “We need to fix the broken border system,” he said. “It is broken.”

This “is the moment for Republicans to put up or shut up,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, told reporters on Wednesday, referring to Mr. Schumer’s offer. “If we cannot reach a vote that supports our allies and partners in Ukraine, we have failed at this moment in history.”

In a speech on Wednesday, Schumer questioned whether Republicans were even interested in making a deal — or whether the goal all along had been to abandon Ukraine.

“Has the border been nothing more than an excuse for the hard right to cut off funding for Ukraine, and too many other Republican senators who are not part of the far right are going along with it?” Mr. Schumer said. “Because we don’t have much time to continue negotiating from the floor if we’re just going around in circles.”

While most Republicans in the Senate still say they support arming Ukraine, that is no longer the case in the House of Representatives, where a majority of Republicans have voted in recent months to limit programs to send weapons to the war-torn country. Mr Johnson has consistently opposed such measures.

As lawmakers continued to bicker over funding, alarmed Ukrainian leaders continued to make a series of calls for help — and look for ways to circumvent Congress’ inaction.

“The price of investments in Ukraine today is invariably the price of the sovereign self-defense of any democratic country,” Mychailo Podolyak, senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, wrote on social media.

Mr. Zelensky appealed to American defense companies, encouraging them to work directly with Ukraine to build a long-term relationship — and vowed that Kiev would eventually repay the West by contributing to the security of others.

“Together we can create a new and powerful arsenal of freedom that will provide reliable support to all the free nations of the world,” he said in a video address at an arms industry summit hosted by the Commerce Department. “Ukraine aspires and is capable of becoming a security donor to all our neighbors once it has guaranteed its own security.”

In a speech at the same event, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III pledged to stay in the fight with Ukraine despite disagreements over funding for such ventures in Congress.

“Together with our allies and partners, I am confident that we have all the components we need to help our Ukrainian friends sustain their fight for their sovereignty over the long term,” Austin said.

Pieter Bakker reporting contributed.