US Senate Committee approves $1 billion for Ukraine: what is known
1 August 2025 01:24
A U.S. Senate committee has approved a military spending bill that includes about $1 billion in support for Ukraine. This decision was made despite the fact that the administration of President Donald Trump had previously asked Congress to exclude such funding altogether. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Reuters.
The Republican-controlled committee approved a total budget for the Pentagon for fiscal year 2026 of $852 billion, $21.7 billion (or 2.6%) more than the Trump administration had requested.
The bill was passed by a vote of 26 senators to 3. The document is now being submitted to the Senate for consideration. The initiative has received broad support from both political camps – both Democrats and Republicans.
The document provides for:
- $800 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program, which allows the United States to provide weapons, equipment, and training to the Ukrainian military;
- $225 million for the Baltic Security Initiative, much of which will ultimately go to support Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion.
“We can consider the support for Ukraine in this bill to be about a billion dollars,” said Democrat Chris Coons, a senior official on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
The bill must be passed by the Senate and then sent to the White House for Trump to sign or veto.
Supplemental bill: $54.6 billion for 2 years
Separately, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire) have initiated a bipartisan bill that would provide $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next two years.
However, even such an initiative with the support of both parties will face difficulties.
The last time a large aid package for Ukraine worth $61 billion was approved in April 2024, under the presidency of Joe Biden.
