Stalled deal on US border security leaves Ukraine in the lurch

Forget sleighbells – those are alarm bells ringing on Capitol Hill as time winds down for senators to strike a deal on immigration reform that would free up more funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan before the holiday break.

How’d we get here again? The White House has asked for $110 billion in aid for those three countries. Republicans – shrewdly linking voters’ growing concern about record-high undocumented migration and softening public support for Ukraine – are demanding tighter US border security as part of the bill.

But with just days until Senators head home for the holidays, talks are stalled because of political disagreements and the complexities of writing immigration legislation. Even if Senators do strike a deal, nothing would get passed until January at this point.

The biggest loser in all of this, for now, is Ukraine. Kyiv is on the brink of losing support from its biggest military backer, the US, while funding from its other main supporter, the EU, is in limbo too. Without a Senate deal, the White House has warned that Washington will run out of fresh funds for Kyiv entirely within days, leaving the Pentagon with extremely limited options to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine.