Mitch McConnell sees Ukraine aid as one of the most important legislative victories of his career

WASHINGTON — For Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the monthslong fight over U.S. aid to Ukraine carried historical implications.

Last year, Ukrainian forces were successfully holding off Russian advances but were in desperate need of new weapons, ammunition and supplies. President Joe Biden sent an urgent request to Congress for a new round of aid to the war-torn country, and McConnell, R-Ky., immediately got on board.

But he faced a major obstacle: The loudest voices in his own party had suddenly developed a new opinion about whose side they were on.

“It was a family fight from the beginning,” McConnell said Wednesday in an interview. “This was a Republican issue; it was a family fight. And that’s where the action was on Ukraine, on our side.”

From McConnell's perspective, winning over the reluctant faction of the GOP is among one of the most significant legislative victories of a congressional career that has spanned decades.

“Well, I think certainly one of the most important issues I’ve been involved in over all these years,” McConnell said before pausing. “And if you look at it from a worldwide point of view you could argue that it is the most important.”

Throughout his career McConnell shepherded deregulation legislation and Republican tax cuts through the chamber, and last year he became the longest-serving leader of a party in Senate history.

McConnell also made one of the most consequential decisions of his career in 2016, when he decided to deny then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a confirmation hearing or a vote. The decision resulted in Donald Trump’s drastically changing the makeup of the court when he won the presidency, by placing three conservative justices on the