Военный кабинет Израиля принял решение нанести ответный удар Ирану.
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Ответ Израиля на атаку Ирана будет
"значительным и мощным"
.
Об этом сообщает портал Ynet со ссылкой на израильский источник.
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"Военные действия Ирана, предпринятые на основании статьи 51 устава ООН, были ответом на агрессию сионистского режима против наших дипломатических представителей в Дамаске.
Вопрос можно считать закрытым"
, говорится в сообщении.
Однако если израильский режим "совершит еще одну ошибку", реакция Ирана будет куда более жесткой, предупредили в иранской дипмиссии.
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Министр обороны Израиля проводит второй за день телефонный разговор с главой Пентагона Остином.
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Президент США Джо Байден прямо сейчас проводит телефонный разговор с премьер-министром Израиля Нетаньяху в связи с иранскими ударами. Об этом сообщает телеканал Fox.
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Министр обороны Израиля Галлант беседует с министром обороны США Остином — Haaretz.
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Представитель израильской армии сообщил, что атака Ирана все еще продолжается, а количество запущенных ракет превысило 200.
Известно, что пострадала авиабаза. Скорее всего, речь идет об авиабазе, с которой взлетал самолет атаковавший иранское консульство в Дамаске.
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Израильский канал 12 сообщает, что Израиль «немедленно» нанесет ответный удар, а высокопоставленный представитель ЦАХАЛа пообещал дать «беспрецедентный ответ» на нападение Ирана и «не ложиться спать из-за того, что приходит из Ирана».
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Саадулла Зарей, иранский эксперт по региональным вопросам: Мы нанесли удар по той же авиабазе, откуда взлетел израильский самолет, который нанес разбомбил иранское посольство в Дамаске.
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Иран запустил новую партию беспилотников в сторону Израиля, сообщил телеканал Al Hadath.
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«Узнаю брата Колю»: криворукое ПВО не только у ВСУ.
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Средства ПВО Сирии отражают израильскую атаку на международный аэропорт в Дамаске, сообщает газета Al Watan со ссылкой на представителя командования ВС арабской республики.
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Силы ПВО Иордании сбивают запущенные Ираном ракеты, передает телеканал Al Arabiya.
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Минобороны Великобритании заявило, что истребители королевских ВВС на Ближнем Востоке будут сбивать запускаемые Ираном беспилотники и ракеты.
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Ряд иранских каналов (достаточно серьезные) пишут о звуках пусков баллистических ракет в ряде городов страны.
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Иран предупредил Иорданию и другие страны региона перед атакой против Израиля, сообщает Fars со ссылкой на источники.
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Миссия Ирана в ООН назвала атаку на Израиль ответом на агрессию "сионистского режима" против дипломатических объектов, основанным на Уставе ООН.
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Мы не подтверждаем и не отрицаем, что Иран проинформировал нас о характере и сроках своего ответа, - руководство Израиля.
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Телеканал ABC: «Целями ударов Ирана по Израилю станут только военные объекты. Первые дроны приблизятся к Израилю на час раньше, чем ожидалось, в 01:00 по местному времени [совпадает с московским]».
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Иран, Йемен, Сирия, «Хезболла» и бойцы иракского шиитского ополчения «Хашд аш-Шааби» массово атакуют ракетами и дронами Израиль. В воздухе более 200 различных ударных беспилотников и ракет.
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Йеменцы также направили беспилотники и ракеты в сторону Израиля.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Иран не стремится к эскалации или конфликту в регионе, но в случае военной агрессии Израиля ответит более мощно и решительно, говорится в письме иранского постпредства генсеку ООН. По оценке Тегерана, СБ ООН не исполнил свою обязанность по поддержанию мира и позволил Израилю нарушить главные принципы международного права.
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В телефонном разговоре, который длился полчаса.. Байден просит Нетаньяху не реагировать на иранскую атаку.
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Заседание Кабинета безопасности Израиля наделяет Нетаньяху, Галланта и Ганца полномочиями принимать решение о реакции на нападение Ирана: Израильская общественная телерадиокомпания.
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Представительство Ирана в ООН заявило, что иранская атака на Израиль завершена. «Дело можно считать оконченным. Но если израильский режим совершит еще одну ошибку, ответ Ирана будет значительно более суровым», — говорится в посте представительства в соцсети X.
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Военный кабинет Израиля только что одобрил предложение разрешить премьер-министру Биньямину Нетаньяху, министру обороны Йоаву Галланту и министру Бенни Ганцу принять решение об ответе Израиля на сегодняшнее нападение Ирана.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Вице-канцлер ФРГ: Борьба украинцев - это и наша борьба
...
"Сейчас на Украину оказывается очень большое давление, на линии фронта, но в течение весны-лета и в течение года ситуация станет легче. Начнут поступать боеприпасы. Чехия закупила много боеприпасов на мировом рынке. Немецкое производство увеличивается. Американцы наверняка что-нибудь поставят. Так что сейчас для них, возможно, самое тяжелое время. Но ситуация для Украины улучшится", - сказал Хабек.
…
"Если посмотреть на статистику, то мы занимаем второе место после американцев по объемам военной поддержки. Мы оказываем финансовую поддержку. Кроме того, экономические отношения действительно отличные. Мы открыли наши инвестиционные программы для Украины - страны, которая находится в состоянии войны", - отметил министр.
...
"Если страна находится в состоянии войны, риск дефолта очень и очень высок. Поэтому обычно мы этого не делаем. Но мы это сделали, и сейчас в общей сложности 46 компаний инвестировали в Украину. Новые инвестиции в Украину. Так что мы делаем многое", - заявил он.
…
"Мы, Германия, поставили еще одну систему Patriot, и мы делаем это первыми, чтобы попросить других и показать пример того, что каждый может сделать немного больше. И если вы посмотрите на количество систем Patriot в других странах, то увидите, что есть страны, которые имеют гораздо больше систем Patriot, чем Германия", - сказал Хабек.
…
"
Мы должны осознавать, и это нужно объяснять снова и снова, что борьба украинцев - это также наша борьба
(выделено а.п.)", - подчеркнул министр.
…
"Я уверен, что мы сможем (сделать больше. - Ред.)... Если бы у них (украинцев. - Ред.) было больше боеприпасов, больше оборонительных систем, катастрофических ударов по электростанциям не произошло бы", - заключил он.
...
McConnell says Tucker Carlson and Trump's waffling delayed crucial Ukraine aid
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WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday celebrated the impending passage of $60 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine ahead of a final vote, while lamenting the fact that it took months to secure enough Republican support to land it.
At a press conference, the Kentucky Republican pinpointed two men responsible for that delay: former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump.
“The demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. “And so he had an enormous audience, which convinced a lot of rank and file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake.”
“I think the former president had sort of mixed views on” Ukraine aid, he added, before alluding to the failed attempt to add border security provisions to the bill, “which requires you to deal with Democrats, and then a number of our members thought it wasn’t good enough.”
“And then our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything at all,” McConnell said. “That took months to work our way through it.”
The top Senate Republican has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine aid and battled a slew of conservative voices who have sought to block it. He called the expected passage of the bill “an important day for America, and a very important day of freedom-loving countries around the world.”
The Senate voted 80-19 on Tuesday to advance the legislation, setting up a final passage vote that’s expected later in the day, or could slip to Wednesday. President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it, and it could become law within days.
McConnell, who consistently bucked loud conservative voices in his party who opposed Ukraine funding, argued that the margin of support for the war-torn country is an indication the Republican Party is tracking back to its Reaganesque roots of defending the encroachment on democracy around the world.
McConnell said he remains committed to working to help regain a Republican Senate majority, despite his plans to step back from leadership at the end of the year. He said he believes the crop of candidates the Republicans have recruited are more inclined to back away from the party's recent isolationist tendencies.
“I think we’ve turned the corner on the isolationist movement,” McConnell said. “I’ve noticed how uncomfortable proponents of that are when you call them isolationist. So I think we’ve made some progress and I think it’s gonna have to continue because we got big, big problems: China, Russia, Iran. Going into World War II we just had Germany and Japan.”
The package’s difficulty in the House led to an extended period where Ukraine went without aid, primarily because of right-wing House Republicans who argued the money should not be spent abroad but instead should be spent here at home on border security. McConnell said part of the blame falls on the Biden administration for not recognizing the need earlier and reacting, but acknowledged Congress should’ve acted more quickly.
“Acting quicker, partially because of the administration partially because of Congress, not approving this bill sooner, has not been helpful,” McConnell said.
The Kentucky Republican also defended House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whose transformation from Ukraine aid skeptic to staunch supporter helped assure passage in the House. “More important than what I think about the speaker is what the former president thinks about the speaker,” McConnell said. “And he obviously made it clear that he was a fan of Speaker Johnson and suggested some of his critics to shut up. So I’ll just quote the former president.”
McConnell said he feels positive about the GOP’s Senate nominees so far in the battle for the majority this fall, when asked if he has the same “candidate quality” concerns of 2022.
“I feel pretty good about our nominees. I’m pretty confident we’re going to win West Virginia. That’s 50. You all can do the math. One more makes 51,” McConnell said. “And I hope to hand this job over to the majority leader.”
‘Fraudulent’: Trump tormentor Lincoln Project loses big money in cybertheft scheme
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The Lincoln Project — a super PAC that ranks among former President Donald Trump’s leading antagonists — lost $35,000 in what it described to federal regulators as “fraudulent” transactions committed by cyberthieves, Raw Story has confirmed.
The Lincoln Project, which has produced a torrent of anti-Trump ads and whose leaders are fixtures on cable news, blamed the lost money on “hackers” who targeted a committee vendor.
“A vendor’s email was hacked, with the hackers producing authentic-looking invoices that were sent from our vendor’s legitimate email account. The hack affected multiple clients of the vendor, including Lincoln Project,” spokesman Greg Minchak told Raw Story, adding that the “transactions did not impact our operations in any way in the fight for a democratic future for our nation.”
Once the Lincoln Project’s vendor discovered the hack, it notified the groups and “our compliance firm took immediate steps to mitigate the problem,” Minchak said. “This included notifying our bank’s fraud department and implementing new procedures to confirm invoices and payments. Since it was the vendor that was hacked, we are letting them and our bank's fraud department lead any investigation.”
Asked to identify the vendor, Minchak declined.
“We value the privacy of the vendor and have no additional comment,” he said.
Numerous vendors received five-figure payments from the Lincoln Project during the first three months of 2024, according to Federal Election.
…
Among them: law firm S. R. Labby LLP, law firm Holland & Hart LLP, law firm Elias Law Group, consulting firm Eve Berry & Partners LLC, administrative consulting firm Veracity Reigns LLC, media production firm Manhattan Creative Group, payroll vendor ADP, political strategy consulting firm Two Rivers Public Affairs, communications consulting firm Viking Strategies LLC and political consultant Message Mountain Productions.
Also: campaign merchandise vendor Grossman Marketing Group, political consultant Intrepid Media, advertising firm Third Act Media LLC, television advertising consultant 202 Consulting Solutions LLC, podcasting production company Podcast Village LLC, campaign finance compliance firm Capitol Compliance Associates Inc., public relations firm Leidar USA Inc., political consultant Lever Communications, fundraising consultant Katz Watson Group Inc. and organizing software company NationBuilder.
Minchak is himself a Lincoln Project contractor who earns $10,000 each month, federal records indicate.
Trouble for Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project sprung into existence in late 2019 as a hub for disaffected Republicans and conservatives itching to attack Trump. Rick Wilson, Reed Galen, Tara Setmayer and Stuart Stevens are among its most visible leaders.
A slew of anti-Trump millionaires and billionaires — hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, Hollywood billionaire David Geffen, media mogul Amos Hostetter Jr. and oil fortune heir Gordon Getty among them — helped the Lincoln Project raise more than $85.1 million during the 2020 election cycle.
It became the subject of a Showtime documentary series.
But the Lincoln Project has faced significant difficulties as it attempts to damage Trump ahead of the 2024 election. A sexual harassment scandal involving co-founder John Weaver led to his departure. Co-founder George Conway called for the Lincoln Project’s dissolution. The New York Times raised questions about the group’s spending habits and financial arrangements.
And so far this election cycle, the Lincoln Project has yet to replicate the financial success it experienced during mid- and late-2020.
During the 2024 election cycle, the Lincoln Project has raised just short of $11 million through March 31, according to FEC records — raising about $2.9 million and spending more than $1.9 million from Jan. 1 through March 31. It reported having about $2 million cash on hand at the end of March.
Technically organized as a hybrid super PAC, the Lincoln Project may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for Biden and against Trump — or for or against any politician or political cause. It may also raise federally limited amounts of money that it, in turn, may directly donate to political candidates it supports.
Dozens of political committee thefts
The Lincoln Project theft is only the latest in a series of thefts from high-profile political committees this year.
The campaign of Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) and the political action committee of hotelier Marriott International were also recently hit by thieves, federal records reviewed by Raw Story indicate.
For Aguilar — the No. 3 Democrat in the U.S. House as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus — his campaign lost a total of $633.83 on March 1 from six “fraudulent” charges made with web services company GoDaddy.com, according to FEC records.
Marriott’s PAC lost nearly $7,500 because of what it described to the FEC as two “unauthorized/fraudulent” debits from its account — one on Feb. 20 and another on March 12.
But the PAC appeared to recoup the money, telling federal regulators that its bank, Truist Bank, issued a “credit for unauthorized disbursement” for both of the debits.
Aguilar’s campaign committee and congressional office did not respond to phone and email messages from Raw Story seeking comment. Marriott International likewise did not respond to messages inquiring about the circumstances of the “unauthorized/fraudulent” debits.
The campaign committee of Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the campaign of Republican congressional candidate Scott Armey of Texas, the United Mine Workers of America – Coal Miners PAC and a Planned Parenthood PAC are among other political committees hit by thieves in recent months, Raw Story reported.
Dozens of other have been hit during the past several years. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), for example, have experienced thefts from their campaign accounts at some point during the past two years.
Today in History: April 23, first YouTube clip is uploaded
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Today in History:
On April 23, 2005, the recently created video-sharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
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«Ни один пакет не сможет остановить русских. Что остановит русских, так это единый фронт всей Украины и всех ее партнеров», - считает министр.
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New US military aid package to Ukraine expected to be worth around $1 billion
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The Biden administration is preparing a new aid package for Ukraine that is expected to be worth around $1 billion, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The Senate passed the legislation Tuesday night, sending it to the White House for Biden’s signature as soon as Wednesday.
n briefings to Congress in recent weeks, administration officials have indicated that the US will likely send Ukraine long-range ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile Systems, for the first time as part of the new aid package, three of the sources said.
Last fall the US first sent Ukraine the midrange variant of the ATACMS missile system, which can reach about 100 miles, while the longer-range version can reach as far as 190 miles.
Ukrainian officials have been asking the US both in private and in public for the long-range missile to target deeper behind Russian lines. American officials have resisted, citing both supplies and further provoking Moscow as excuses.
But US officials have been describing the situation on the Ukrainian battlefield in increasingly dire terms over the last several months, as US aid stalled amid gridlock in Congress over the administration’s $60 billion supplemental funding request.
CIA Director Bill Burns testified earlier this month that Ukraine could lose the war by the end of this year without US support, and the top US general for Europe, EUCOM commander Gen. Chris Cavoli, told Congress that the Russians have such an advantage in artillery ammunition that they will soon be outfiring the Ukrainians 10-to-1. Broadly, Russia has maintained a “significant quantitative advantage” over Ukraine in terms of munitions, manpower and equipment, a NATO official said earlier this month.
Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he hopes ATACMS missiles will be sent to Ukraine by the end of next week.
“It should have happened six months ago. The next best time is right now. This week, we’ve seen the Ukrainians overperform if you step back for a moment and think about the fact that for most of my life, most of America’s defense forces were focused on Russia,” Warner said. “Getting this additional equipment as quickly as possible, I hope once this gets to the President by Tuesday or Wednesday, that these shipments will be literally launched with that longer range ATACMS.”
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement after the bill passed on Tuesday that “the delayed ATACMS delivery has cost unnecessary lives and prolonged the war. While this legislation could push pivotal momentum toward securing victory, it should not have required an act of Congress for President Biden to deliver the deep-strike missiles to Ukraine.”
The package is also expected to include more desperately needed munitions for Ukraine, including air defense and artillery ammunition, Bradley fighting vehicles and demolition weaponry, the sources said.
The text of the legislation passed by both chambers of Congress requires the administration to transfer the coveted longer-range ATACMS “as soon as practicable,” unless the president determines that doing so would be detrimental to US national security interests.
The military aid will be sourced from the US’ own stockpiles through a funding mechanism known as presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, and will be the first PDA package for Ukraine since March. It will be significantly larger than that package, however, which was worth only around $300 million that the Pentagon was able to scrounge together from cost savings elsewhere in the department.
A White House official declined to comment on the contents of the PDA except to say that the US is “prepared to quickly send military aid to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield and air defense needs as soon as the supplemental passes the Senate and is signed into law.”
US European Command is working to process the weaponry so that it can flow into Ukraine as efficiently as possible, officials told CNN.
Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told lawmakers earlier this month that the Pentagon could begin transferring the aid “within a week or two” after the legislation passed.
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Biden signs foreign aid bill providing crucial military assistance to Ukraine
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President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law an aid package providing crucial military assistance to Ukraine, capping months of negotiations and debate.
The aid package, passed by the Senate late Tuesday evening and worth $95 billion in total, includes nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The package also includes a bill that could eventually lead to the banning of TikTok in the United States - giving Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell it or else it will be banned from app stores in the United States.
The signing of the aid package was the culmination of months of tense negotiations, personal lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a split in the House Republican conference that continues to threaten the leadership position of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Hardline House conservatives opposed further US funding to Kyiv and threatened to oust Johnson over his handling of the negotiations. Conservatives in Congress have opposed additional assistance for what they view as an unwinnable war.
Biden had spent months lobbying Johnson to move forward with aid to Ukraine, enlisting top administration officials and CIA Director Bill Burns to lay out the stakes for Ukraine - and ultimately democracy in Europe and across the world - if Russia continued to make inroads in its military campaign there.
Earlier this year, Biden signaled his intentions to make significant immigration-related concessions if Congress were to move forward with the aid bill. Republicans in Congress had demanded those concessions, but retreated from the issue after former President Donald Trump signaled his opposition to allowing Biden to claim a win on an issue Trump hopes to campaign on.
The final vote in the Senate was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three Democrats against the bill. Among the Democrats who voted against the bill was Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spent time with Biden earlier this week and said he was against further US funding of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
“Enough is enough,” Sanders said in a post on X shortly after the bill’s passage. “No more money for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war machine.”
The bill’s effects will be felt most quickly and acutely on battlefields in Ukraine, whose soldiers have faced ammunition shortages and battlefield losses in the absence of US assistance this year.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
The US secretly sent long-range ATACMS to Ukraine — and Kyiv used them
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The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines.
In March, the U.S. quietly approved the transfer of a number of Army Tactical Missile Systems with a range of nearly 200 miles, said a senior Biden administration official and two U.S. officials, allowing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces to put at risk more Russian targets inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.
The administration will include additional long-range ATACMS in a new $1 billion package of military aid President Joe Biden approved on Wednesday, one of the U.S. officials said.
The provision of the long-range version of the ATACMS ends a lengthy drama in which Ukraine clamored for years to receive the weapon, driving a wedge between Washington and Kyiv. The U.S. quietly sent the medium-range version of the missile in October, but Ukraine continued to press for a weapon that would allow it to strike farther behind Russia’s lines.
Ukrainian forces have used the long-range missiles twice, first against a Russian military base in Crimea and more recently against Russian forces east of Berdyansk near the Sea of Azov, the senior administration official said.
The U.S. on Wednesday announced a new $1 billion package of weapons that will quickly be transferred to Ukraine now that Biden has signed off on the long-delayed foreign aid bill that passed the Senate this week. Among other weapons, the tranche will include Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for air defense; 155mm artillery rounds; Bradley Fighting Vehicles; Javelin anti-tank systems; and Claymore anti-personnel munitions, according to a Pentagon press release.
POLITICO first reported in March that the U.S. was sending Ukraine a second round of a different version of ATACMS, one that travels 100 miles and carries warheads containing hundreds of cluster bombs. The senior administration official, who like others was granted anonymity to detail a sensitive decision, said the March shipment also included the long-range version, and that the missiles arrived in Ukraine this month.
Russian military bloggers posted images of a strike on the Dhzankoy airbase last week and speculated that Ukraine used ATACMS.
The U.S. was initially reluctant to send ATACMS — even under sustained domestic and international pressure — due to stockpile concerns and fear of escalating the war. But Russia’s increasingly brutal tactics and more American production of the long-range version convinced Biden to authorize the transfer.
The Biden administration warned Russia that attacking Ukraine’s energy grid and using North Korean-provided missiles would lead the U.S. to reconsider sending ATACMS to Ukraine. Those strikes continued, leading top officials — national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown — to unanimously recommend the weapons transfer.
The Biden administration believes providing ATACMS can give Ukraine some new momentum in the two-year war, forcing Russia to move back critical command and control nodes and other high-value targets such as aviation assets, said the second U.S. official.
The long-range strategic missiles will also allow Ukraine to hold key parts of Crimea at risk, the official said. That includes the Kerch Bridge connecting occupied Crimea to Russia, as well as ports and naval facilities in the peninsula from which Russia’s Black Sea Fleet operates.
The official acknowledged that Ukraine is still in a tough fight, and that Russia continues to throw manpower and resources at the battlefield.
“There’s no silver bullet weapon that’s going to change the character of the battlefield,” the official said, but: “Ukraine’s got something in their toolkit that they can use at a time in place of their choosing, that creates impact, that gives them an advantage.”
Biden approved the ATACMS decision in mid-February, the official said, but had to wait for the funding battle over the supplemental to play out in Congress. The House finally green-lighted more than $61 billion in Ukraine funding on Saturday and the Senate followed suit Tuesday, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature on Wednesday.
In early March, however, Pentagon officials alerted colleagues that cost savings on other weapons contracts and humming production lines allowed the U.S. to deliver long-range ATACMS before the supplemental’s passage. The weapons were then secretly sent as part of a $300 million tranche of military aid announced in March.
Biden last year approved sending the medium-range version of the missile but was still reluctant to send the long-range type Ukraine wanted. The U.S. secretly shipped the medium-range weapon, called Anti-Personnel/Anti-Material, and Ukraine used it for the first time last fall.
But now having long-range ATACMS in its arsenal allows Ukraine to threaten Russian assets inside the whole of Crimea as well as the Black Sea Fleet. The transfer could also boost morale among Ukrainian troops increasingly fearful that they have lost the advantage in the fight.
The House Ukraine bill approved on Saturday called on the Biden administration to send long-range ATACMS to Ukraine “as soon as practicable.”
The U.S. shipment follows a similar move by the U.K., which first sent its long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine in May 2023, giving Kyiv the ability to hit targets up to 155 miles away. The weapon, which is launched from Ukrainian fighter planes, has allowed Ukraine to precisely target ammunition dumps, bridges and other critical infrastructure deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea.
The U.K. announced its largest Ukraine aid package to date this week, which induces 1,600 missiles, including more Storm Shadows. France has also sent its SCALP missile, which has a similar range.
Now that three allies have sent their longer-range missiles to Ukraine, it adds more pressure on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send his long-range Taurus missile. His government so far has refused to do so, yet the move has significant support in the German parliament.
Last year, Germany also refused to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine until the U.S. agreed to send Abrams tanks. Scholz eventually agreed to send the tanks once Biden announced that several dozen Abrams would be sent.
How McConnell and Schumer beat hardline conservatives on Ukraine
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Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden might have been in lockstep on aiding Ukraine, but some things the Senate minority leader had to shoulder alone.
Like battling his own party for the better part of the year.
“I don’t want to take a bit away from Chuck. He didn’t have any Ukraine problems, I had all of them. But, we agreed on the overall goal,” McConnell said in an interview on Tuesday. “It was not possible for him to help me with my members. Nor was it possible for the president to help me with my members. It was a Republican family argument.”
That argument has been settled, for now, as a majority of GOP senators took McConnell’s side in the long-running fight over $95 billion in foreign aid on Tuesday. McConnell punctuated the win over his party’s non-interventionist wing by flipping the votes of more than a half-dozen past opponents, tweaking Tucker Carlson for his vocal anti-Ukraine commentary and taking a victory lap in an extended press conference.
Beyond the intraparty GOP battle, though, Congress’ passage of $60 billion in aid for Ukraine traces back to something simple but rare in modern politics: an ironclad pact of trust between leaders of opposite political parties. It’s all the more surprising given the years of animus between Schumer, the majority leader and relentless political tactician, and McConnell, the outgoing minority leader celebrating what may be his foreign policy coda as the top Senate Republican.
Forgetting past fights over Senate control, former President Donald Trump and the Supreme Court, Schumer and McConnell made two consequential agreements that aided the Biden administration’s foreign aid request over the seven-month saga: keeping Ukraine assistance bound to Israel aid, and eventually moving forward together on a package without a border security component.
The synchronicity effectively “pulled the rug out from under the right wing guys,” as Schumer put it.
“We never deviated,” Schumer said on Tuesday of his partnership with McConnell. “We talked to each other every other day about strategy or what to do or what could happen. And it shows you when you have a bipartisan force, it can get things done.”
That’s true over in the House, too, where Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are still building their partnership but delivered the same goal. Jeffries’ members helped boost Johnson’s foreign aid package across the finish line last week, and now Democrats in that chamber seem poised to block a looming vote to boot the speaker
Together, both chambers approved close to what the White House requested of them six months ago, minus border security money that was lanced by Trump. There were times it looked improbable as McConnell absorbed regular criticism from a handful of conservative critics, a bipartisan border deal collapsed, Trump locked up the GOP nomination and House Republicans pilloried the Senate’s focus on Ukraine.
McConnell and Schumer worked closely on funding the government earlier this year and found surprising collaboration during Biden’s presidency on everything from infrastructure to gun safety. But lest you think it’s all sunshine between the two erstwhile rivals, McConnell said this after the Ukraine fight: “It’s not personal. We just happen to agree on the issue.”
Working a new speaker
The two Senate leaders and the Biden White House developed surprisingly solid relationships with Johnson, who had to overcome his own history of opposition to Ukraine funding as a rank-and-file member to even allow a vote to come to the floor — plus a daily threat to his job security. McConnell steadily found common cause with Johnson, who “neutralized the former president on this issue,” in McConnell’s words, by appearing with Trump earlier this month and tweaking the bill.
“That changed everything,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who voted against the initial Senate bill but flipped his vote for the final legislation.
Biden directed his senior aides to employ a two-pronged strategy: privately make clear to Johnson the stakes for Europe and the rest of the world if Russian President Vladimir Putin claims Ukraine, leaning heavily on intelligence — and lay off attacking the new speaker. Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti spoke to Johnson regularly in the month before the bill neared the president’s desk and served as Biden’s conduit to Jeffries, too.
For months, chief of staff Jeff Zients’ day began with a meeting of senior aides — including Ricchetti, Director of Legislative Affairs Shuwanza Goff, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and others — gathered around the large oval table in his office to discuss how to present the case about the dire situation in Ukraine.
“The president’s foundational leadership direction in all of this is to keep talking, keep working. Obviously, there were people who thought for months that this could not get done or that it was dead,” Ricchetti said. “From a historical perspective, from our national security standpoint, there just couldn’t have been anything more important.”
Despite their opposing beliefs, Schumer and Johnson spoke “a lot” in recent weeks, Schumer recalled, and he saw a major temperamental difference between the speaker and the conservative House Freedom Caucus’ most rowdy members.
“He wasn’t one of these people who was just angry and wanted to stick it to the other side, even though his ideology was different,” Schumer said.
McConnell’s mission
How Congress spent seven months debating Ukraine aid is best viewed in the context of larger political forces. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy objected to Schumer and McConnell’s initial spending tranche in September, then was ousted by conservatives after funding the government. The painful race to succeed him produced Speaker Johnson and a lengthy negotiation over adding border security — which then prompted Trump’s work to kill it.
All along, McConnell was steadfast on Ukraine, even as conservatives clobbered him. When the border piece failed, he sat down with Schumer to make sure the aid package moved forward anyway.
“If we didn’t have that it probably would have died,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) of McConnell’s single minded determination.
Biden’s aides worked to sweeten the deal for both parties, helping Johnson craft a key component that sells off Russian oligarch assets, restructures some of the foreign aid as a loan and cracks down on TikTok.
Not that long ago, it appeared a majority of both chambers’ Republicans were opposed to sending Ukraine billions more, even in the more Kyiv-friendly Senate. A sea change in the Republican Party, counter to McConnell, looked imminent. Now, that’s less clear.
“We made this one hurt for the establishment, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a leading critic of Ukraine aid.
And, even now, the Senate minority leader knows the next debate is closer than it may appear: “No arguments are ever won or lost long term.”
It’s been about 16 months since Congress last sent Kyiv money, and the war began drifting away from Ukraine in recent months as it lost ground to Russia while Washington debated further aid. The intelligence this month crystallized the matter for many on-the-fence Republicans.
Holding their fire
On the Democratic side, Schumer held his caucus to just three defections — despite a rising tide of Democrats who want more conditions on Israel aid. That frustration over
how Israel has handled the war in Gaza at times threatened to fracture the 51-member Democratic Caucus, and even prompted Schumer to call for new elections in Israel.
But Schumer did not stray from the bill he hatched with McConnell.
“I can’t think of anything in the last 15 years, where the consequences of failure would have been more momentous than they were here. And Chuck and Mitch wouldn’t let that happen,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Congressional Democrats and the president had to show patience and doggedness — and for Biden, that meant not browbeating Republicans that Democrats believed would eventually get to yes.
“Even if it would be a day of momentary political advantage to get out and beat the shit out of them, he didn’t,” Schumer said of the president.
Still, Biden kept up the public pitch for backing Ukraine, particularly in the winter months as Russia was able to gain new ground. And when Johnson was elected speaker in October, after months of Biden warring with McCarthy, the White House grabbed the opening for a new relationship with the senior-most elected Republican.
In the months that followed, the White House closely consulted with congressional leaders and the House’s national security hawks like Chairs Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas). Ricchetti and Goff stayed in touch with Johnson and his aides over phone calls and meetings at both the speaker’s office and in Ricchetti’s White House office. And Biden and McConnell still spoke directly.
“I didn’t think we could give up. We just had to keep trying. I have kind of a specialty in long games,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “And this was a lot longer than it should have been.”
Still, it’s reasonable to wonder what will happen the next time Ukraine needs aid. McConnell will only be leader for eight more months. Trump may become president. Johnson could be run out of the speakership.
Vance, perhaps unsurprisingly, believes it is unlikely Congress will pass another package of similar size again. Schumer, however, sees something to build on.
“I feel I’m in a unique position. After McConnell goes, I’ll be the leader with the most experience. I have my caucus behind me, but I am able to make it work with Republicans. And you put all that together, and I think we’ll be able to do it again,” Schumer said.
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Inside Dems’ thinking on saving Mike Johnson
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Democrats are increasingly open to the idea of voting to protect Speaker Mike Johnson against an ouster attempt, putting him in a stronger than expected position even with a razor-thin majority.
More than two dozen Democrats told POLITICO they expect a swath of the party to step in and save the Republican speaker following his decision to buck conservative members of his party and support military aid to Ukraine.
“I don’t think we should penalize a speaker for doing the right thing,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a former majority leader.
For weeks, many in the party have signaled they would vote to sink a speaker-deposing motion if Johnson brought the long-awaited package up for a House vote. Many Democrats are loath to repeat the month of chaos last fall, after they unanimously joined with eight Republicans to terminate Kevin McCarthy’s speakership.
And as the foreign aid package heads to President Joe Biden’s desk, Democrats widely see protecting Johnson as outweighing any political benefits that would result from weeks of more House GOP pandemonium.
“We’ve seen what’s happened with the first ouster, and now we have a second speaker. We’ve seen what’s happening with the paralysis that this has caused, the inability to move the budget forward,” said Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.). “Democrats are being the adults at the party. We have a country to provide for. We have a world to keep safe.”
If Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) triggered the ouster vote, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) predicted “the majority of Democrats will” back Johnson.
A GOP leader staying in power thanks to support from Democrats would have been unthinkable before last year. It’s a sign of just how far conservative stonewalling has pushed the House, with both parties increasingly open to working across the aisle in split government — especially when the alternative is caving to a faction more inclined to tank legislation than compromise.
It will undoubtedly cause other headaches for Johnson, including hardliners possibly triggering multiple votes to terminate his speakership, but many Democrats said they’re willing to keep backing him if he stays in their good graces.
“What I do in the future depends on what happens in the future. With the national security package, the speaker showed he was a leader worth saving,” Trump-district Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) said in a statement to POLITICO. “So if he keeps acting the same way, I’d keep voting the same way. I wouldn’t vote for him in an election for speaker, of course. But that’s a much different circumstance.”
To be clear, Democrats would likely vote to block a motion to oust Johnson, which would be more politically palatable for the caucus rather than a direct referendum on the speaker himself. And there’s always room for last-minute hijinks, a lesson McCarthy learned when he trashed Democrats in a TV interview immediately after they helped him prevent a shutdown — inciting anger on the left at the exact point he needed help. But for now, the support Johnson needs from across the aisle is his to lose.
Purple-district Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) declined to commit to a specific vote on the motion to vacate but said “the fact that Speaker Johnson found the courage to do the right thing — to do his job — and remain true to his word means a good deal to a legislator like me. Trust is foundational, and it’s something we absolutely did not have with Speaker McCarthy. At the end of the day, I know that the constituents in my district want a functional Congress, not more political infighting.”
And while many Republicans don’t trust current Democratic signaling — recalling September rumblings about Democrats considering lending a hand to McCarthy that didn’t pan out — Johnson hasn’t generated the kind of ill will across the aisle that his predecessor did.
Though the Louisiana Republican is more ideologically conservative, he has earned begrudging plaudits from the opposing party. Unlike McCarthy, Democrats see him as an honest broker, particularly after he put a foreign aid package on the House floor that largely mirrored the original Senate-passed version that they wanted.
“I’m not inclined to reward extreme politicians who want to punish the speaker for working across the aisle and sending long-awaited aid to our allies, and I expect many of my colleagues feel the same way,” said Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.).
Greene has vowed she will force a vote, though she hasn’t committed to a specific timeline, and two other conservatives have publicly endorsed the push. If it fails the first time, some Democrats privately believe his conference could give him a pass and not attempt to overthrow him again, especially if the anti-Johnson bloc is limited to Greene and her allies. Special elections in May and June may also weigh in his favor, increasing the GOP’s margin in the House slightly, from its current minuscule one vote.
Centrist Democrats who helped Republicans advance and pass the foreign aid package have privately gamed out the so-called motion to vacate and what it would take to prevent the speaker’s defenestration. Mostly, Democrats are willing to help the speaker regardless of any sort of deal, but that hasn’t stopped speculation over some sort of power-sharing agreement among the minority party.
“I would be one of the first to raise my hand and say that I want to be part of that conversation, to see if we can really govern together or be in a position where he’s able to govern and bring those bipartisan bills. I have said, over and over, that bringing us bipartisan bills is such a huge part of this role as speaker right now, and that those bills will pass. We just need them,” said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).
At the same time, many in the party are unlikely to get too far ahead of their leadership, who have been publicly circumspect on how they could handle the motion. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t bring up a motion to boot Johnson during a closed-door caucus meeting before the foreign aid vote Saturday and has indicated he still wants House Democrats to discuss the path forward if conservatives trigger the vote.
One moderate Republican was optimistic Tuesday that Johnson will be able to keep his job in the end.
“I know that so many of us are proud of Mike Johnson and we really stand with him, so he shouldn’t be fearful,” Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) said. “A good leader isn’t fearful of what people think. They always are there to do the right thing, and he did that in this situation.”
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