The United States House of Representatives voted on 3 June to advance a bill on new military aid to Ukraine. This was the first relevant initiative in support of Kiev to gain approval in Congress after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The procedural vote ended with a result of 218 votes in favour and 204 against, paving the way for the final consideration of the document. The bill provides billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, strengthening sanctions against Russia and reaffirming US support for Kiev.
The initiative was supported by Democrats and some Republicans, demonstrating the divisions within the Republican Party on policy towards Ukraine and Russia. The bill’s author, Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York, said that “the vote is not just a procedural step.”
“It is a statement about whether Congress stands with Ukraine, the Ukrainian people and their struggle for freedom and democracy,” he stressed.
The document envisages providing Ukraine with $8 billion in military loans, extending the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative programme until 2027 and imposing additional sanctions against Russia.
Republican Don Bacon, who supported the bill, called the vote a “historic moment”.
“The House of Representatives just voted 218-204 to advance the Ukraine Military Assistance Initiative and tough sanctions against Russia. This is our Churchill moment, and we must pass this test,” he said.
Supporters of the document note that the vote took place against the backdrop of increased Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Washington to provide additional air defence systems, particularly Patriot systems.
The final vote on the bill is expected to take place on 7 August.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a speech to Congress that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a “strategic disaster” for Moscow.
“Russia will not achieve the goals it set out to achieve at the beginning of the invasion and may not achieve the goals it is now demanding in the negotiations at all,” Rubio said.
He said the Ukrainian military has made gains on the battlefield in recent weeks and is “increasingly effective in striking targets on Russian territory.”
At the same time, the secretary of state stressed that “the war has no military solution and must ultimately end through negotiations, although the positions of Kiev and Moscow remain far apart for now.”
In addition, Rubio said that the US administration was finalising an agreement on a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine. According to him, the relevant decision is undergoing interagency coordination and “may be announced in the near future.”
Rubio’s statements and the vote in the US House of Representatives became one of the most notable signals in recent months about the preservation of bipartisan support for Ukraine in Washington, despite the desire of the Trump administration to reduce US involvement in the war and intensify diplomatic negotiations to end it.
Earlier, it became known that the Ukrainian President addressed a letter to the US President and Congress, in which he reported a growing shortage of air defence systems to shoot down missiles, in particular, means of countering ballistic missiles against the background of threats from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In particular, according to media reports, the letter notes that “we rely almost exclusively on the United States for ballistic missile defence”. It is about PAC-3 missiles to Patriot systems.
US support for Ukraine has dwindled as President Donald Trump insists Europe is funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
The US Senate on December 17 approved a sweeping $901 billion 2026 defence policy bill. The document, among other things, includes a section that provides an additional $400 million in funding for Ukraine for 2026 and the same amount for 2027.
In February this year, the US Congress approved $200 million in security assistance for the Baltic states amid Russia’s increased activity on NATO’s eastern flank. The decision was approved as part of the Defence Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2026 and ensures continued US support for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as part of the Baltic Security Initiative (BSI). The aid, approved by US President Donald Trump, was retained despite previous attempts at the Pentagon to cancel this line item in the defence budget.