Ukraine to prevail if U.S. Congress combines aid package with REPO Act - McFaul

This was stated on Friday during a speech at the Kyiv Security Forum by the Director of the Institute of International Studies at Stanford University, ex-U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mike McFaul, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Regarding REPO, “we are now close to finally do what we should have done a long time ago, which is to transfer these (Russian - ed.) assets to Ukraine in a smart way to provide for support for the war effort and the reconstruction," the former ambassador noted.

He also expressed his belief that it would be a "win-win" idea for Ukraine to “marry the REPO Act to the Aid to Ukraine Bill”, which is still being blocked by House Republicans.

McFaul directly accused House Speaker Mike Johnson of following the wishes of Donald Trump by holding up a vote on the bill that would lay down $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, because he knows that it will be approved by the majority of lawmakers. According to McFaul, the combination of this bill with the REPO Act will allow the Republicans to claim they also contributed to supporting Ukrainians and forced the Biden administration to do what it did not want to do.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the 16th annual Ukrainian Security Forum is being held in Kyiv on March 21-22.