Cameron urges US to pass Ukraine bill on eastern Europe trip
The Foreign Secretary has said Congress should pass the aid package for the sake of global security.
Lord David Cameron has urged US lawmakers to pass a bill including support for Ukraine, saying there should be “no doubt” that backing will continue for as long as it takes to defeat Russia.
The Foreign Secretary said Congress should vote through the foreign aid package for the sake of global security as Kyiv keeps up its defensive position against Moscow.
The bill has passed through the Senate but faces a deeply uncertain future in the House of Representatives, where hard-line Republicans aligned with GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump oppose the legislation.
“They are fighting off illegal Putin aggression and they need our support. We should be standing up for freedom, standing up for the right of this country to defend itself and making sure that Putin doesn’t win.
“I hope that will happen. But be in no doubt, we’re going to back Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
The Foreign Secretary is visiting Bulgaria and Poland this week before travelling to the Munich Security Conference, where he will encourage counterparts to boost defence production for Ukraine.
In an op-ed for The Hill also published on Wednesday, he called on US legislators to pass the bill which “matters greatly to UK and European security”.
“I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Putin in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, or the uncertainty of the response in 2014, when he took Crimea and much of the Donbas – before coming back to cost us far more with his aggression in 2022.
“I want us to show the strength displayed since 2022, as the West has helped Ukrainians liberate half the territory seized by Putin, all without the loss of any Nato service personnel.”
He added: “As Congress debates and votes on this funding package for Ukraine, I am going to drop all diplomatic niceties. I urge Congress to pass it.”
The intervention attracted the ire of Republican congresswoman and ardent Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told Sky News: “David Cameron needs to worry about his own country and, frankly, he can kiss my ass.”
The Foreign Secretary issued a similar appeal last December, when he warned during a visit to Washington DC that blocking a package of support for Ukraine would be a “Christmas present” for Putin.
Lord Cameron dismissed suggestions that he was “interfering” with US politics, saying he came “as a friend of America” to argue that voting through the funding is “the right thing to do.”
The aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan has passed through the Senate 70-29, despite a small group of Republicans opposed to 60 billion dollars (£47.5 billion) for Kyiv arguing that the US should focus on its own problems before sending more money overseas.
But it faces an uphill battle in the House, with the Republican Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting he might block it.
Kyiv has moved to a defensive posture amid critical shortages on the battlefield, but has kept up its strikes behind the largely static 930-mile front line.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian aircraft and ships in the Black Sea have helped push Moscow’s naval forces back from the coast.
On Wednesday, the country’s military said it sank a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea using naval drones. The report has not been confirmed by Russian forces.
