March Looms as Important Month for Ukraine: Former Foreign Minister

Volodymyr Ohryzko, the former Ukrainian foreign minister, wrote in a recent opinion column that March will be an important month for the country as it contends with the ongoing invasion from Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin first began the invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, citing widely disputed claims of mistreatment of ethnic Russians in the country and claiming that the Ukrainian government was run by neo-Nazis, despite its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, himself being Jewish. With the grueling conflict's two-year anniversary approaching, all eyes are on the United States Congress for the future of the military aid packages that it has provided to Ukraine, which have been pivotal in helping the war-torn country fight back against Russian forces.

Some Republican lawmakers in Congress have long been opposed to providing further aid to Ukraine, while Democrats have sided with President Joe Biden in continuing to fight for more. The GOP had at certain points said that it would not accept compromises on Ukraine without reforms on security at the U.S.-Mexico border due to an influx of illegal immigration. A recent bipartisan Senate bill that would have provided major reforms for the southern border alongside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine was shot down by Republicans, with some admitting that they want to be able to keep campaigning on border issues throughout the 2024 election cycle. A solution for Ukraine aid has still not been reached.

In a piece published on Saturday by The New Voice of Ukraine, Ohryzko, who served as Ukraine's foreign minister from 2007 to 2009, explained that March would be a pivotal month for Ukraine, as the current deadline for the U.S. to approve a new federal budget is March 8, marking as well a deadline for a Ukrainian aid solution to be reached.

"The beginning of March is the deadline for the budget to be approved in America," Ohryzko wrote. "If it is not approved, the US government will stop paying its expenses. To adopt a temporary one for two months again is already crossing all possible boundaries. It has already been done twice."

He continued: "Therefore, there should be a regular approved budget. So, even from this point of view, we should hope that common sense will prevail. We expected this to happen in January. Unfortunately, it did not occur in January due to many different things. But, this aid should be approved by March."

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Ohryzko also noted that March will be the month when "final decisions on many legal cases being investigated against Donald Trump" will be made.

The former president is currently facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases on both the state and federal level that could result in prison time if he's convicted. Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, has been pushing to delay the cases until after the election. Meanwhile, he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former president has repeatedly vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war within a day if reelected to office in November, although Ukraine and Russia have cast doubts on his ability to broker peace negotiations.

Trump has also shown indifference toward continuing America's support of Kyiv's military and has repeatedly criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"Depends if they treat us properly," Trump said during a Fox News event in January when asked if he would stay committed to the military bloc. "Look, NATO has taken advantage of our country. The European countries took advantage."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview last week, however, that he is "confident that the United States will remain a staunch ally" no matter who wins the November election.