U.S. Senate majority leader plans vote on Ukraine aid in early December

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to hold a vote on President Joe Biden's request for billions in assistance for Ukraine and Israel as soon as the week of December 4.

He stated this in a letter to senators on Sunday, Ukrinform reports, citing Politico.

Schumer also called on Democrats to engage more with Republicans to agree on border security measures to help manage the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Earlier, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said that he wanted to combine Ukraine funding with border security measures.

Schumer blamed that border demand as the "biggest holdup" to delivering new funds to Ukraine's defense against Russia and Israel's war with Hamas.

"This has injected a decades old, hyper-partisan issue into overwhelmingly bipartisan priorities," Schumer said. He said his 51-member caucus was "ready to work on common-sense solutions to address immigration" but warned that if the Republican Party took too hard a line, it could "jeopardize the entire" supplemental bill.

"Nothing would make autocrats like Putin or Xi happier right now than to see the United States waver in our support for the Ukrainian people and its military," Schumer wrote in his letter, referring to the leaders of Russia and China. "This is not just about Ukrainian or Transatlantic security, it's about American security as well because an unchecked Putin would be an emboldened Putin."

Schumer also said there would be an all-senators briefing on Ukraine in the coming days.

A bipartisan gang formed several weeks ago with hopes of clinching a deal that would marry Biden's request for more than $100 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the border with changes to U.S. asylum and parole policy.

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