Lawmakers To Ukraine: Help Is On The Way — Just Don’t Ask Us When

With more U.S. aid stalled in the Republican-held House, concerns that Ukraine could be left high and dry are growing as its war with Russia nears its second anniversary. And House lawmakers did little to ease those fears when they left Washington a day early Thursday for a scheduled week-and-a-half break without acting on a bipartisan $95 billion aid package.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say the United States will ultimately come through and send Ukraine more weapons to defend itself in Europe’s bloodiest war since World War II.

But the one question they can’t answer is the precise path and timing for that aid to get through Congress.

“With all of our faults and warts, we’ve been there. And we are not leaving. We’re not going to abandon the Ukrainian people. I can assure the Ukrainian people we will not abandon them,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said Thursday at a news conference.

Pascrell was seconded by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), the only Republican at the event, held in advance of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, which began Feb. 24, 2022.

“Absolutely. We want to stand with Ukraine,” Wilson said.

Several of Wilson’s and Pascrell’s colleagues will be in Germany this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of high-level military and diplomatic officials from across the globe, and they will push the same message: The U.S. will come through with help for Ukraine.

But they’ll face the same questions that Pascrell and Wilson were dogged with Thursday: How? And when?

The Senate, which advanced the arms package for Ukraine that also includes weapons for Israel and Taiwan, is not set to return to Washington until Feb. 26. The House is not due back until Feb. 28. When they