Ukraine issues WW3 warning as congress stalls aid vote

• He urges the US Congress to pass a long-stalled foreign aid bill, with $61bn earmarked for Kyiv.
• The bill includes funding for Israel and the Indo-Pacific.
• Russia claims that any fresh American aid for Ukraine will not impact the battlefield.

In a news statement, Ukraine’s prime minister warned that there would be a “Third World War” if Ukraine lost its conflict with Russia. He urged the US Congress to pass a long-stalled foreign aid bill, expressing “careful optimism” about its approval. The measure, which earmarks $61bn (£49bn) for Kyiv, is scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives this Saturday.

The proposal incorporates funding for Israel as well as the Indo-Pacific.

Russia asserts that any fresh American aid for Ukraine will not impact the battlefield, as the situation on the front line appears “unfavorable” to Kyiv.

Speaking to the media in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal emphasized the urgency of the US security assistance, stating, “We need this money yesterday, not tomorrow, not today.”

“If we will not protect… Ukraine will fall,” he added. “So, the global system of security will be destroyed… and all the world will need to find… a new system of security.”

“Or, there will be many conflicts, many such kinds of wars, and at the end of the day, it could lead to the Third World War.”

This is not the first time Ukraine has issued such an alarming warning about the consequences of its potential defeat.

Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that if Russia won the conflict, it could next invade Poland, triggering World War Three.

But Kremlin officials have ridiculed such claims as Western scaremongering. Last month, President Vladimir Putin dismissed suggestions that Russia might one day attack Eastern Europe as “complete nonsense.”

Russia has never initiated an attack on a country within NATO, which includes Poland. NATO’s collective defense pact dictates that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all.

In Wednesday’s interview, reporters asked Prime Minister Shmyhal about a recent claim by Republican House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul that members of his party were being “infected” by Russian propaganda.

Mr Shmyhal said: “We should understand that disinformation and propaganda are influencing here in the United States on many people, in the European Union on many people, such as in Ukraine.”

Opposition from the right wing of the Republican party has hindered potential assistance to Ukraine for months. Some of those lawmakers have objected to sending tens of billions of dollars in aid overseas without first passing funds for US-Mexico border security.

These conservatives have also dismissed any suggestion that they could be Kremlin dupes as smears.

President Joe Biden stated in a Wednesday statement that he would immediately sign the package into law once passed by Congress “to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends”.

Ukraine critically depends on weapon supplies from the US and the West to continue fighting Russia, which possesses superior numbers and an abundance of artillery ammunition.

Months of congressional impasse have already profoundly affected the battlefield. Due to ammunition rationing and falling morale, Ukraine has found itself outmanned, outgunned, and forced into retreat.

In February, it retreated from Avdiivka, a town near occupied Donetsk that it had held since the conflict began in 2014.

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