We’ll keep supporting Ukraine, Biden tells allies: President calls global partners to assure the U.S. will keep giving Zelensky cash despite chaos in Congress and a pro-Kremlin candidate storming to power in Slovakia

President Biden has strategized with key allies on a call to coordinate “continued support” for Ukraine after a crack in the coalition and billions in additional U.S. aid stalled due to infighting in Congress.

Present on the call were British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary General Jens Soltenberg, President Andrzej Duda of Poland, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other leaders.

It came after several developments raising the prospect that it would limit Ukraine’s ability to get the weapons it needs as the country tries to reclaim territory seized by Russia in last year’s invasion.

In NATO ally Slovakia, Robert Fico of the populist Smer-SD party stormed to victory in the parliamentary elections. He has pledged to stop providing military aid to a country that has supplied MiG-29 jets to Ukraine. Slovakia and Ukraine share a border in the east of the country.

His party is considered pro-Kremlin, and Fico campaigned under the slogan “not a single round.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President Klaus Iohannis of Romania and the French Foreign Minister also took part in the call.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership role is at stake after pushing through legislation that avoided a government shutdown but left out additional funding for Ukraine.

A photo made available by the Ukrainian Presidential Office shows President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) rewarding Ukrainian soldiers during his visit to military positions on the front line between Lyman and Kupiansk, October 3, 2023. Ukraine continues to try to repel Russian forces after their military mission in February. 2022 invasion

“We don’t want to see any delay… there should be no delay whatsoever” in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. Ukrainian soldiers ride a T-64 tank during military training exercises in the Kiev region on September 27, 2023. The US delivers advanced Abrams tanks to Ukraine

A Senate version included $6 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, which faces a critical period in its efforts to push back Russia’s invasion force.

Florida Republican Party Rep. Matt Gaetz has filed a motion to “remove the chairman,” effectively removing McCarthy from his post, after he trusted Democrats to pass a bill to fund government operations for 45 days. He accused McCarthy of “making a secret deal on Ukraine.”

McCarthy says he plans to tie Ukrainian aid to border reforms, tying it to an equally fraught issue.

“Let’s vote on it,” Biden said on Saturday after US government funding was secured. ‘Stop playing games. Get this done.”

There have also been tensions with Poland, which has been an enthusiastic ally and pro-arms advocate. Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania reached one agreement on grain exportsafter Polish complaints that Ukrainian grain was flooding the market and driving down prices for farmers.

McCarthy ultimately removed funding for Ukraine from the bill to fund the government after repeatedly promising that the country would not be given a “blank check.”

“The most concerning thing about yesterday is that McCarthy met all his demands except one: no funding for Ukraine, despite a majority in both chambers supporting it,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). ‘Maybe Ukraine can do without new financing for a few weeks, but not for the rest of the year. There is a crisis coming,” he says tweeted Renamed X on the site.

The US has already done that as long as some $75 billion in aid to Ukraine, but the country remains dependent on military contributions from the US and other allies amid a virtual battlefield stalemate.