US president Joe Biden assured leaders of G7 and European states of Washington's continued support for Ukraine during a video conference, the Polish president said on Tuesday.
"He assured us that support for aid given to Ukraine continues, especially military aid. He said he would secure this support in Congress," Andrzej Duda told a news conference.
Mr Biden has said that American aid to Ukraine will keep flowing for now as he sought to reassure allies of continued American financial support for the war effort.
But time was running out, the president said in a warning to Congress.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” Mr Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room after Congress voted late on Saturday to avert a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding package that dropped assistance for Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
Voting in the House this past week pointed to potential trouble ahead, with nearly half of House Republicans voting to strip $300 million from a defence-spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money was later approved separately, but opponents of Ukraine support celebrated their growing numbers.
Then, on Saturday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy omitted additional Ukraine aid from a measure to keep the government running until November 17th. In doing so, the Republican closed the door on a Senate package that would have funnelled $6 billion to Ukraine, roughly a third of what had been requested by the White House.
Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the stopgap measure, with members of both parties abandoning the increased aid for Ukraine in favour of avoiding a costly government shutdown.
Mr Biden said that deal was made to keep the government running and he worked to reassure US allies that the funding would be there. - Additional reporting from AP
