Experts, including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who voiced concerns about Donald Trump’s potential reelection, cautioned that cutting off aid to Ukraine would represent a break in US leadership and a division of NATO.
Speaking at an event to chart Ukraine’s future following two years of conflict with Russia, she was in New York.
“This is a decisive time not just for Ukraine, but for the West or NATO,” Clinton told the audience Wednesday at Columbia University, where she became a lecturer after losing the 2016 presidential election to Trump.
Clinton’s time as Washington’s chief diplomat from 2009 to 2013 coincided with a marked souring of US-Russia relations.
“How we respond or fail to respond will immeasurably impact the state of the 21st century global order,” she said.
With Congress having previously approved over $110 billion for Ukraine, Washington is the country’s principal military ally; nevertheless, the superpower has been unable to approve more funding for Ukraine for some months.
Congress once more delayed a vote on aid to Kyiv and Washington’s main Middle East ally, Israel, amid internal squabbling among Republican legislators, over whom Trump has influence, and a tug-of-war with President Joe Biden’s Democrats.
However, the US Senate unexpectedly voted on Thursday to approve the aid package after a number of Republicans agreed to allow for debate.
It was uncertain if the law would receive enough support in the Republican-controlled House to reach Biden’s desk, even in the event that it passed the Senate.
Clinton, an advocate of US engagement overseas, said it was “shameful that aid to Ukraine continues to be held up in Congress because of petty politics.”
The former first lady and ex-senator made an impassioned plea that “we can’t let the aggression by Russia and the suffering of Ukrainians go unnoticed and without response.”
