WASHINGTON — The Senate adjourned Thursday for a weeklong recess without passing any bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia to help deter an invasion of Ukraine or provide additional military aid to the Eastern European country as the crisis there worsened.
“The stakes go far beyond Ukraine. This is a moment of peril for the lives and safety of millions of people, as well as for the foundation of the United Nations Charter and the rules-based international order that preserves stability worldwide,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Thursday address in New York to the U.N. Security Council.
Lawmakers did approve a sense of the Senate resolution right before they left for a Presidents Day week break. That nonbinding measure reaffirmed “unwavering United States support for a secure, democratic, and independent Ukraine,” while recommitting the United States to “providing political, diplomatic, and military support, including additional lethal and non-lethal security assistance to strengthen the defense capabilities of Ukraine.”
