US House passes Ukraine aid bill despite attempted block by Republican leadership

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on June 4 to approve legislation that would provide billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine.

The Ukraine Support Act came to a vote in the House despite opposition from Republican leadership in congress and President Donald Trump's administration. The bill was advanced in a procedural motion the previous day, setting up the final vote.

The bill received the requisite 218 votes in the House to secure a simple majority.

"This is not one of those conflicts where there is a gray area," Rep. Gregory Meeks, the bill's primary backer, said during debate on the House floor leading up to the vote.

"Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian thug who ordered the invasion of Ukraine for his own imperialistic ambitions. He has ordered the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and the murder of innocent civilians. And as the United States' support has wavered, the carnage has only grown."

Meeks pointed out that 2025 was the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since the outbreak of full-scale war in 2022 and that Russia's war in Ukraine has become the largest land war since World War II.

"And if you believe (Putin's) ambitions will end with Ukraine, you've not been paying attention at all," he said.

Introduced by Meeks, a Democrat from New York and the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the bill allocates $8 billion in military financing for Kyiv, extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through 2027, and imposes additional sanctions on Russia.

As lawmakers voted on the bill, about a dozen pro-Ukrainian demonstrators rallied outside the U.S. Capitol. Representatives greeted them after the vote passed.

The bill is the first major Ukraine aid measure to gain significant momentum in Congress since Trump's return to the White House in January 2025.

Along with additional military assistance to Kyiv, the Ukraine Support Act allocates funds for Ukraine's postwar reconstruction and establishes measures to counter Russian disinformation. It also calls for sweeping sanctions against Russia's oil and mining industries.

The bill further includes a mechanism to override presidential actions to terminate existing sanctions without cause.

The legislation had previously stalled after House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to consider it, reflecting Republican reluctance to continue U.S. support for Ukraine. Republican lawmakers have increasingly sided with Trump on Ukraine, contributing to a softer stance toward Moscow and a more skeptical approach to aid for Kyiv.

Despite the opposition, representatives brought the bill to the floor by forcing a vote via discharge — a seldom-used, high-threshold tool designed to prevent the majority party leadership from completely blocking legislation.

Successful discharge petitions are rare; from 2011–2022, only one petition succeeded in the House. The petition to bring the Ukraine Support Act to the floor was short one signature for months, before Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former Republican, provided the crucial final signature.

U.S. support for Ukraine has fallen sharply since the start of Trump's second term, with American military aid to Kyiv declining by 99% during his first year back in office.

Both on the campaign trail and since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly criticized the amount of money and military equipment invested in Ukraine's defense and has adopted positions that critics say favor Russia.

While passage in the House marks a major victory for Ukraine's supporters in Washington, the bill must be approved by the Senate and signed into law before it goes into force. The legislation would an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is unlikely to approve the measure without the greenlight from Trump.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story reported that the House approved the Ukraine Support Act in a 2016-204 vote on June 4. That reflects a procedural vote ahead of the final vote to approve the legislation. The article has been updated to reflect the accurate results of the House vote.