Ohio senators discuss $40B Ukraine aid package

(WDTN) – As the war in Ukraine rages on, lawmakers in the U.S. are discussing another multi-billion aid package for support.

The money will help Ukraine on the frontlines of the war. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown believes the U.S. should be doing everything it can to stop Russia.

“If we don’t stop Putin here, what’s next? Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, who knows? And this is really important for the world, and really important for our national security, and really important because we stand with the Ukrainian people,” Sen. Brown said.

With a week left before U.S. military aid is supposed to run out, Senator Rob Portman is confident in bipartisan support for the bill in the Senate. He said they were able to trim the bill to make sure it focuses solely on aid for Ukraine.

“It’s a critical time in this war. If we are not helping the Ukrainians have the ammunition they need to be able to fight and some of the weapons they still need to be able to fight, then we are giving Russia a big advantage. And Russia winning this war is not in our national security interest,” Sen. Portman said.

Senator Portman hopes this will help Ukraine’s military defeat Russian forces without putting American soldiers on the ground.

“Ukraine must win this thing. The goal has to be to push Russia out of the territorial boundaries of Ukraine. If we are successful in that, that will establish that the post World War II order is still strong,” Sen. Portman said.