US Republican senators introduced their own sanctions package to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine and to show support and assistance to Ukraine and Europe in the event of a Russian invasion, leading to questions about whether bipartisan negotiations over sanctions have ended on Capitol Hill. .
The Republican-led sanctions package comes after weeks of failed negotiations between senators from both parties. Senators could not agree on whether to include penalties dealing with the controversial Nord Stream 2 . pipeline. The Republican proposal could be a negotiating tactic to get Democrats to reopen discussions about a bipartisan sanctions package.
But in order to make any kind of Congressional sanctions package effective, senators need to move quickly. Russia has amassed more than 130,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, and Putin continues to add a military “list of options” to the “list of options,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a Monday briefing.
What will the legislation do: A statement on the law said the proposed Republican sanctions package, introduced as the Non-Concession of European Territory (NYET) Act, would impose “sanctions” on Nord Stream 2 “without concession if Russia invades.”
The bill would penalize “Putin’s friends, supporters, and major banks,” and provide $500 million in foreign military funding to Ukraine. Of the $500 million, $250 will be “emergency funding” and $100 million “for emergency killer assistance for critical capabilities such as air defense, anti-armor and anti-ship capabilities.”
The funding proposed in this bill would be in addition to the funding that the US government has already provided to Ukraine. In 2021, a US delivery Kirby said in December that nearly $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine. Since 2014, when Russia invaded and occupied Crimea, the United States has provided more than $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was disappointed that senators had not reached a bipartisan agreement on the sanctions package.
“I wish we had,” Kane said, come up with a bipartisan sanctions package, but cautioned that sanctions can sometimes make it difficult for leaders to take a “diplomatic plan because they don’t want to appear as if we have to back down because of the sanctions.”
On Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the US government Provides a guarantee of a sovereign loan to Ukraine of up to $1 billion to support the economic reform agenda and continue to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The statement said the package would also double “US funding for US military exercises in Europe,” and create a new Foreign Military Funding Program for the State Department for Eastern Europe to “help European allies enhance their defense capabilities.”