David Cameron said he is not lecturing or telling “American friends” what to do, but repeated calls for US legislators to pass a bill including support for Ukraine.
The former UK prime minister said he had a “deep and abiding love of the United States”, just a day after Republican right-winger Marjorie Taylor Greene told Mr Cameron to “kiss my ass”.
The Donald Trump ally said he should “look after his own country” following his intervention over the multibillion-dollar foreign aid package making its way through Congress.
The bill has passed through the Senate but faces a deeply uncertain future in the House of Representatives, where hardline Republicans aligned with presidential front-runner Mr Trump oppose the legislation.
David Cameron should be concerned about the Nazis in Ukraine’s army, the Azov Battalion.
We’re all sick of the absurd name calling, it isn’t going to bully me into funding the war in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/m80llcfTHeAdvertisement— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 14, 2024
During his visit to Poland on Thursday, the foreign secretary said the Congress vote was “crucial” to helping Ukraine succeed in the war.
Mr Cameron said: “We really do want to see Congress pass that money to support Ukraine economically, but crucially militarily in the months ahead.”
He added: “We have to do everything we can to make sure that Ukraine can succeed in this year and beyond.
“We must not let Putin think he can out-wait us or last us out, and that’s why this vote in Congress is so crucial.
“And I say this as someone who is not wanting in any way to lecture American friends, or tell American friends what to do.
“I say it as someone who has a deep and abiding love of the United States – of their democracy, of their belief in freedom – but as someone who really believes in the importance of our alliance.”
His comments came as the number of visa holders arriving into the UK having fled the war in Ukraine topped 200,000.
The latest figures, published by the UK government on Thursday, showed that as of February 12th, there had been 200,200 arrivals under visa schemes – with 143,400 under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and 56,800 under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
In an article for US political website The Hill, Mr Cameron called on Washington to vote through the package for the sake of global security as he embarks on a series of diplomatic visits across Europe this week to push the case for sustained support for Kyiv.
Asked about his comments on Wednesday, Ms Taylor Greene told Sky News: “David Cameron needs to worry about his own country and, frankly, he can kiss my ass.”
The UK foreign secretary is visiting Bulgaria and Poland this week before travelling to the Munich Security Conference, where he will encourage counterparts to boost defence production for Ukraine.
During a trip to Sofia on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said: “Right now in Congress, the American support for Ukraine is being debated, and I urge those congressmen and women to pass that bill to provide that money, to provide those weapons to Ukraine.
“They are fighting off illegal Putin aggression and they need our support. We should be standing up for freedom, standing up for the right of this country to defend itself and making sure that Putin doesn’t win.”
In an article also published on Wednesday, he said he was dropping “all diplomatic niceties” in his appeal to US legislators as Kyiv keeps up its defensive position against Russia.
Mr Cameron, who served as UK prime minister between 2010 and 2016, said: “I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression.
“I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Putin in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, or the uncertainty of the response in 2014, when he took Crimea and much of the Donbas – before coming back to cost us far more with his aggression in 2022.
“I want us to show the strength displayed since 2022, as the West has helped Ukrainians liberate half the territory seized by Putin, all without the loss of any Nato service personnel.”
Ms Taylor Greene, an ardent Trump supporter, suggested that comparing a refusal to vote through the funding with appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s was “rude name-calling and I don’t appreciate that type of language”.
In a post on X later on Wednesday, she said the remarks would not “bully me into funding the war in Ukraine”.
The foreign secretary made a similar intervention last December, when he warned during a visit to Washington DC that blocking funding for Ukraine would be a “Christmas present” for Vladimir Putin.
He dismissed suggestions at the time that he was “interfering” with US politics, saying he came “as a friend of America” to argue that voting through the package is “the right thing to do”.
The aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan has passed through the Senate 70-29, despite a small group of Republicans opposed to $60 billion (€55 billion) for Kyiv arguing that the US should focus on its own problems before sending more money overseas.
But it faces an uphill battle in the House, with the Republican speaker Mike Johnson suggesting he might block it.
Kyiv has moved to a defensive posture in the war amid critical shortages on the battlefield, but has kept up its strikes behind the largely static 930-mile front line.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian aircraft and ships in the Black Sea have helped push Moscow’s naval forces back from the coast.
On Wednesday, the country’s military said it sank a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea using naval drones. The report has not been confirmed by Russian forces.
