Biden: Republicans will have 'a lot to pay for' if they don't pass Ukraine aid

U.S. President Joe Biden said during a press briefing on Jan. 13 that Republicans will have "an awful lot to pay for" if they don't help pass military aid for Ukraine.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a supplemental funding bill that included $61 billion in aid for Ukraine in a procedural vote held on Dec. 6, insisting that any further military aid must include major significant domestic border changes.

Regarding U.S. border security, Biden said on Jan. 13 that he was "prepared to make significant alterations at the border."

"And there are negotiations going on for the last five weeks, so I’m hopeful we’ll get there."

U.S. Democrats have criticized their Republican counterparts for their lack of urgency in passing additional military aid for Ukraine. Senator Chris Murphy told NBC News in mid-December that this was a "crisis moment for Ukraine" as the country is rapidly running out of ammunition.

"(Russian President) Vladimir Putin is delighting right now in Republicans' insistence that we get a deal on immigration reform and if we don't, then they're gonna allow Vladimir Putin to march into Ukraine and perhaps into Europe," Murphy said, adding that the extra military aid can change the outcome of the war in Ukraine's favor.

Francis Farrell: Ukraine could still lose the war. Let’s get some things straight

This November has been a particularly grim one here in Ukraine. Over the past month, two media sensations in big Western magazines served as a sober wake-up call about the state of the war. First, Simon Shuster’s profile in TIME magazine on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “lonely fight”

The Kyiv IndependentFrancis Farrell