Joe Biden vows to stand with Ukraine amid budget fiasco

Russia has seized on the US aid funding cut as proof that Western countries are growing tired of propping up Ukraine and the result will be ‘fragmentation’.

The Kremlin warned that western fatigue over Ukraine “will grow”, as the future of United States aid for Kyiv hung in the balance.

A compromise struck in the US Congress over the weekend left out fresh funding for Ukraine due to opposition from hardline Republicans.

“Fatigue over this conflict - fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime - will grow in various countries, including the US,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov predicted Western countries will grow tired of supporting Ukraine. Picture: AFP

He added that Washington would nonetheless “continue its involvement in this conflict”.

Russia’s offensive is dragging on for a 20th month as the Northern winter approaches.

Moscow has long counted on Western countries growing tired of supporting Kyiv and on divisions arising within Western alliances.

“Fatigue will lead to the fragmentation of the political establishment,” Peskov said.

His comments came as European Union foreign ministers met in Kyiv to pledge support for Ukraine, despite disagreements among the bloc’s 27 members over the conflict.

The EU-Ukraine Foreign Minister's meeting in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Picture: Ukrainian Foreign Ministry press-service / AFP

However, EU foreign ministers convened in Kyiv for their first ever meeting outside the bloc on Monday, broadcasting their support after a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill.Kyiv brushed off the wobbles on both sides of the Atlantic, especially the prospect that the U.S. Congressional vote, which excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a government shutdown, represented a deeper change in policy.

It comes as Ukraine is desperately working with Washington to ensure new wartime aid after US politicians dropped additional funding for Kyiv in a last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown.

‘WE WILL NOT WALK AWAY’: BIDEN TO UKRAINE

The 11th-hour funding bill passed by Congress on Saturday will keep US federal agencies running for another 45 days, but left out new aid to Ukraine amid opposition from some hardline Republicans.

“The Ukrainian government is now actively working with its American partners to ensure that the new US budget decision, which will be developed over the next 45 days, includes new funds to help Ukraine,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said.

US President Joe Biden urged Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday to “stop the games” and said he “fully expects” him to secure passage of a separate bill for Ukraine funding soon.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the bipartisan bill to fund the government, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

“I want to assure our American allies, the American people and the people in Ukraine that you can count on our support. We will not walk away,” Mr Biden said in an address from the White House.

The wider signal to the world is damaging, said analyst Brett Bruen.

“That ought to worry leaders in Kyiv, and I think in Moscow they’re celebrating the signs that our support may be waning,” Mr Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room consultancy and a former US diplomat, told AFP.

The proposal adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91 preventing a shutdown was pitched by US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. But funding to Ukraine was cut. Picture: AFP

Kyiv has relied heavily on Western support since Russia invaded last year.

The United States has been the country’s biggest financial backer, providing it with over $40 billion ($A62bn) in military assistance.

But the issue of funding for Ukraine has become increasingly politicised in Washington, where some Republican leaders have pushed for deep spending cuts.

Ukraine held a weapons forum this week to attract more manufacturers to build arms in Ukraine, amid concerns arms support from its Western allies may waver.

Destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, Ukraine. Germany has called for a ‘winter protection plan’ for Ukraine. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

GERMANY URGES ‘WINTER PROTECTION PLAN’ FOR UKRAINE

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday called for the creation of a strategy to insulate Ukraine from the fallout of a campaign of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid this winter.

“Ukraine needs a winter protection plan of air defence, generators and a strengthening of the energy supply. We saw last winter the brutal way in which the Russian president wages this war, with targeted attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants,” she told reporters in Kyiv.

RUSSIA TARGETED BY MORE UKRAINE DRONES

Smoke rises above an industrial facility following a drone attack in Uman, Cherkasy region. Picture: Ukrainian Emergency Service/AFP

Russia was targeted by another wave of Ukrainian drones and shelling on Sunday, wounding three people and forcing an airport to divert flights, officials said.

Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russian regions have accused Kyiv’s armed forces of almost daily drone strikes and shelling on civilian targets.

“On Sunday morning, the armed forces of Ukraine shelled the area of the central market in Shebekino,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

“According to preliminary information, there are three victims - a woman suffered shrapnel wounds to the neck. Two other men suffered shrapnel wounds to their legs,” he said.

The governor of Bryansk region, also on the border, said Ukrainian shelling of a village damaged houses and two administrative buildings but that there were no casualties.

Ukrainian rescuers put out a fire following a drone attack on an industrial facility in Uman, Cherkasy region. Picture: AFP

The attacks came as officials said five drones were shot down over the region of Smolensk, west of Moscow, while another was shot down over Krasnodar region on the Black Sea coast.

“On the morning of 1 October, Sochi airport imposed a temporary flight restriction. Six flights were diverted to alternate aerodromes,” Sochi airport said.

The Crimea bridge, which connects the Moscow-annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland, also briefly closed on Sunday for undisclosed reasons.

Last week, Ukraine claimed responsibility for a missile attack that struck the headquarters of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea, marking a major blow for the Kremlin.

SLOVAKIA HALTS AID TO UKRAINE, STRENGTHENS TIES WITH RUSSIA

A Slovak populist party that wants to stop military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU and NATO will be tasked with forming a new government after winning elections.

The Smer-SD party led by former prime minister Robert Fico scored 23 per cent in Saturday’s vote, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia at 18 per cent.

“Slovakia and the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than (dealing with) Ukraine,” Fico told reporters on Sunday.

Robert Fico ran on a pro-Russian, anti-European Union platform, including advocating an immediate halt to Slovak military aid to Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

He added Ukraine was “a huge tragedy for all” and called for peace talks as “further killing will not help anyone”.

During the campaign, the 59-year-old vowed that Slovakia would not send “a single round of ammunition” to Ukraine and called for better ties with Russia.

President Zuzana Caputova, a former member of Progressive Slovakia and a longtime political rival of Fico, said she would task him with forming a new government.

“In the spirit of our constitutional tradition, tomorrow I will entrust the formation of the government to the winner of the election,” she said in a statement.

Analysts have said a Fico government could radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy to resemble that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Originally published as Joe Biden vows to stand with Ukraine amid budget fiasco