The US House of Representatives has approved a sweeping package of aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, with 18 Republicans joining Democrats to pass a document that the Republican leadership had sought to keep off the floor.
The Ukraine Support Act passed by a vote of 226 to 195 after its supporters overcame months of resistance through a petition to bring the issue to a vote, one of the most complex procedural mechanisms in place in Congress.
The vote marked the first time the House of Representatives passed a comprehensive Ukraine support bill during the 119th Congress and underscores growing concerns among some Republicans about how the U.S. administration is responding to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The legislation, passed late in the evening of 4 June, provides more than a billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, up to eight billion dollars in military loans, support for reconstruction efforts, assistance to Baltic allies, and a new package of sanctions targeting Russia’s financial, energy, mining and government sectors.
“This was a choice between promoting freedom, democracy and the rule of law or accepting a world where law is determined by force,” Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democratic representative on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and author of the bill, told reporters after the vote. “Today’s vote, supported by both parties, demonstrates that the House of Representatives is on the right side of history,” he stressed.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanyshyna, called the vote “an important step forward” and said it reflected Congress’s continued support for Ukraine’s defence. Speaking after the vote, she cautioned against thinking the legislative battle was over.
“Let’s take it one step at a time,” Stefanyshyna told Radio Liberty. “It’s really important to stop for a second and thank the more than 220 members of the House of Representatives who provided support for Ukraine today,” she added.
The package will then move to the Senate. To take effect, the “Support Ukraine Act” must be introduced, voted on, passed by the upper chamber, and then sent to the US president for his signature.
In the coming weeks, supporters of the legislation are expected to focus on building bipartisan support and attracting co-sponsors in the Senate to increase pressure on the Senate leadership to move the package forward. Meanwhile, the bill’s prospects for passage remain uncertain in the Republican-controlled Senate, where the leadership is largely aligned with President Donald Trump’s stance on sanctions against Russia, Radio Liberty notes.
US military aid has fallen sharply since Trump’s return to the presidency of the United States in January 2025. Meanwhile, the US administration’s diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine have stalled.
Russia’s military operations continue despite significant casualties, with Russian authorities on record talking about demanding the handover of all of Donbass as a key condition for a peace settlement, while hinting that agreement to do so came from US President Donald Trump during his meeting with Putin in Anchorage last year.
Trump said last month, in response to questions from reporters, that he had no agreement with the Russian leader that Russia would get “all of Donbass.” He also suggested that the end of the war was getting closer. Putin said the same thing on 9 May (his speaker clarified that the Russian president did not mean anything specific).
Ukraine has been proposing since last year, after the US began to act as a mediator, to stop fighting along the front line – in this case, most of the Ukrainian Donbass, but not the entire region, would remain under Russian control. Ukraine does not intend to recognise this legally.