USA. Aid package for Ukraine in the House of Representatives. Media on Speaker Mike Johnson's attitude

According to the portal, American intelligence last week presented a new report to congressmen on the state of the war in Ukraine, which – according to one congressman who saw it – was “quite strong compared to where we were a few months ago.”

Thursday CIA Director William Burns has said publicly that without American help, Ukraine could suffer defeat on the battlefield before the end of this year. Earlier, while appearing before committees of both houses of Congress, he made similar diagnoses, among others: Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli.

The fate of US support for Ukraine since February – after the Senate passed the aid package – depended almost exclusively on the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his decision to put it to a vote in the House. A relative newcomer to Congress, Johnson has been elected as the third person in the state since his election last October. he repeated that the US “will not leave” Ukraine, but for many months he delayed or resisted the package proposed by the White House, demanding, among other things, radically tightening immigration policy or defining a clear administration strategy.

According to Politico, the real reason was the situation within his party, which has an advantage of only one vote in the House. Johnson was under pressure both from supporters of aid to Ukraine and from the anti-Ukraine extreme wing, which threatened to remove him from office. At the same time, intelligence warnings were becoming increasingly alarmist, and pressure was also coming from a number of foreign leaders, including from Poland, the Baltic states, Britain and the Czech Republic.

Ultimately, the breakthrough came last weekend when he unveiled a new plan to pass aid to Ukraine, splitting the components of the Senate package into three separate bills and adding a fourth that will be voted on in the House on Saturday. On Wednesday, Johnson explained that he decided to go against the grain of some politicians in his own party because he “believes intelligence information” that Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine and “may move to the Balkans” or “engage in a confrontation with Poland.” .

READ MORE: The House of Representatives has opened the way to adopting the aid package for Ukraine

– I would rather send missiles to Ukraine than send our soldiers – he said, adding that his son would soon start studying at the US Naval Academy.

According to Politico, Johnson's return was also possible due to the attitude of Donald Trump, who during last week's meeting with the speaker opposed his removal from office and suggested support for aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan. Politico pointed to Wednesday's meeting between Trump and President Duda, even though it took place after the speaker's decision to help Ukraine.

“If you're wondering why Trump is showing such reticence, it's worth considering that on Wednesday he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, a right-wing populist whom Trump calls a 'great friend' who leads a country that takes the threat from autocrat Vladimir Putin quite seriously.” – wrote the portal.

As the New York Times reported on Friday, Ukrainian and Baltic parliamentarians also worked to convince Trump and his circles to help Ukraine, who met in Vilnius in March with a group of former Trump administration officials. Politicians – including the chairmen of the foreign affairs committees of the Ukrainian and Lithuanian parliaments – were to convince American interlocutors that helping Ukraine was in the American interest because it would create new jobs in the defense industry and would also send a strong signal to China.