WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Congress will be playing into the Kremlin’s hands if it fails to renew funding for Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion — and blamed Donald Trump for playing politics with US national security.
The “clock is ticking” for Ukraine, Biden warned.
The US president called out Trump — his expected November election rival — for pressuring Republican lawmakers not to pass a $118 billion bill that would fund Ukraine’s military in return for strict US immigration curbs, a Republican demand.
“We can’t walk away now. That’s what Putin’s betting on,” Biden said. “Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing this bill is playing into his hands.”
The immigration portion of the bill, he said, included the “toughest set of reforms to secure the border ever.”
Despite themselves insisting on the immigration crackdown as a condition for renewing US aid to pro-Western Ukraine, Republicans have now responded to Trump’s pressure by making clear they will not help Democrats pass the huge bill.
This will sink Ukraine’s chances of getting desperately needed weaponry and ammunition as it enters the third year of resisting a full-scale Russian invasion.
It also means that the toughly negotiated measures to harden the US-Mexican border and keep out undocumented migrants will be abandoned, despite getting initial approval from senior Republican and Democratic senators.
“Most of our members feel that we’re not going to be able to make a law here,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged in remarks to journalists Tuesday.
Biden said Trump, who is running for a return to the White House largely on his anti-immigrant platform and claims that the southern border is suffering an “invasion,” was using the crisis to boost his electoral chances.
“Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically. Therefore... even though it helps his country, he’s not for it,” Biden said. “He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.”
“For the last 24 hours he has done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them,” Biden said. “It looks like they’re caving.”
Trump has been ramping up attacks on the bill for weeks, undermining his own party’s leaders as they inched toward compromise on the border — and thereby opening the door to Ukraine aid.
“Don’t be STUPID!!! We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form!” Trump posted in one of his many warnings to Republican legislators.
Biden and Trump are campaigning on starkly divergent approaches to Ukraine, with the Democrat clear that helping the pro-Western ally repel Russia is vital to ensure a safer world while his predecessor pushes an isolationist “America First” policy.
At home, Biden has pressed for a humane immigration policy but Republicans point to statistics showing migrant apprehensions reaching a record high of 302,000 in December, a surge Trump has been wielding as a major issue in the campaign.
The deal, unveiled by senators Sunday, is a bipartisan $118 billion package of immigration restrictions that Biden has committed to signing into law. It is tied to a foreign aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.
Opposing Ukraine aid bill is playing into Putin’s hands: Biden
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Opposing Ukraine aid bill is playing into Putin’s hands: Biden
- “We can’t walk away now. That’s what Putin’s betting on,” Biden said. “Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing this bill is playing into his hands”
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
