Reality has set in on Capitol Hill that with President-elect Donald J. Trump poised to take office, the era of U.S. military support for Ukraine is coming to an end.
When President Biden made a last-minute request to Congress recently that lawmakers include an extra $24 billion in military aid for Ukraine in their year-end spending package, it received little attention and no serious consideration from members of either party.
That was partly because Ukraine had yet to spend the last multibillion-dollar infusion lawmakers approved early this year to back the country in its war with Russia. But the chilly reception also reflected how reality has set in on Capitol Hill that the election of Donald J. Trump has effectively brought the era of U.S. military support to Ukraine to an end.
The president-elect has made no secret of his animus toward Kyiv and the nearly $175 billion the United States has invested in its fight against Russia.
Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, dismissed Mr. Biden’s Thanksgiving-week request by noting that the question of how — and whether — to continue helping Ukraine was no longer up to him.
“It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that the G.O.P. would wait for direction from Mr. Trump when it came to Ukraine.
While a bipartisan consensus has long existed in Congress for supporting Kyiv in its struggle against Russia, a majority of House Republicans have opposed sending military aid for more than a year. And in the weeks since Mr. Trump’s election, several of the staunchest Republican boosters of providing funding for Ukraine’s war have markedly changed their tone to match his, even as they continue to speak about the importance of supporting the country itself.
