# OPEN LETTER: To the Republican senators blocking the Ukraine Support Act — you are choosing Putin > On June 5, 2026, the United States House of Representatives passed the Ukraine Support Act by 226 votes to 195. This bill authorizes more than one billion dollars in aid to Ukraine and up to $8 billion in direct loans, while imposing severe sanctions and export controls on Russia. Republicans voted alongside Democrats — a rare act of political courage in the current climate. - Author: Maxime Marquette - Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co) - Section: Open letter - Published: 2026-06-29 - Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/lettre-ouverte-aux-senateurs-republicains-qui-bloquent-l-ukraine-support-act-vou ## Introduction: A letter I must write ### June 5, 2026: the House voted, the Senate blocks On **June 5, 2026**, the **United States House of Representatives** passed the **Ukraine Support Act** by **226 votes to 195**. This bill authorizes more than **one billion dollars** in aid to **Ukraine** and up to **$8 billion in direct loans**, while imposing **severe sanctions** and export controls on **Russia**. **Republicans** voted alongside **Democrats** — a rare act of political courage in the current climate. And now, the bill is in the **Senate**. Where **Republicans** are refusing to bring it to a vote. Where the majority leader keeps the bill in a drawer. Where some senators wait for instructions that will never come from the **Oval Office** — because **Trump** himself would likely veto the bill if it passed. ### Why this letter, why now I am writing because I am tired of watching history unfold from the stands. I am writing as a **columnist** who has observed American politics for years, who has watched the **West** hesitate, stall, and barter its solidarity at the price of shameful compromises. The **Ukraine Support Act** is not perfect. But it exists. And your inaction in the **Senate**, ladies and gentlemen senators, has a name: **passive complicity** with Russian aggression. I am not asking you to betray your party. I am asking you to honor your constitutional oath. There is a difference between the two, and that difference has a first name: **Volodymyr Zelensky**, who is fighting with Ukrainian soldiers while you count your votes for the next primary. *This letter is a journalistic act, not a partisan manifesto. I write it from my columnist's platform, with all my acknowledged convictions. I know that Republican senators face real political constraints. But real political constraints will not stop me from naming what I see: a blockade that benefits Moscow and shames America.* ## What the Ukraine Support Act actually contains ### One billion in aid and eight billion in loans — not a blank check The **Ukraine Support Act** is not a blank check for **Zelensky**. It is structured, conditional, and designed to maximize impact while protecting American interests. More than **one billion dollars** in direct aid — military equipment, humanitarian support, strengthening of Ukrainian institutional capabilities. Up to **$8 billion in direct loans** — repayable, with conditions, not a gift. The **sanctions on Russia** included in the bill are among the most targeted ever proposed in **Congress**: reinforced export controls on dual-use technologies, restrictions on Russian financial institutions, prohibitions for American citizens on facilitating certain transactions. It is a **coherent legislative arsenal** you hold in your hands. And you are letting it collect dust. ### The symbolic rebuke of Trump — and why it matters Several **Republicans** voted with **Democrats** to pass this bill in the **House**. That is a strong **political signal** in a context of extreme partisan discipline. These representatives — often from military districts or with Ukrainian communities — chose their conscience and their constituents over the line of their president. That vote is an **act of courage**. In the **Senate**, the same logic could apply. Your chamber includes men and women who served in the armed forces, who understand military doctrine, who know what a **Ukrainian retreat** would mean for **European** and American long-term security. That knowledge imposes a responsibility on you. You cannot ignore what you know. *I understand the political pressure these senators face. Voting against the Trump line means risking a primary funded by Trump PACs, social media attacks, perhaps the end of a political career. But there are moments when the price of cowardice is higher than the price of courage. This moment is now.* ## What is happening in Ukraine while you deliberate ### Ukrainian soldiers waiting for ammunition While the bill sits in the drawers of the **US Senate**, Ukrainian soldiers are running short of ammunition on the front line. Not in an abstract sense, not in a theoretical projection — in the concrete reality of the trenches. **Ukrainian officers** have publicly testified about these shortages. **War journalists** present on the ground have documented the operational implications of these gaps. This is not Ukrainian propaganda — it is documented reality. I make no claim to have been in the field. I have not seen those trenches with my own eyes. I rely on reports from accredited journalists, on public statements from Ukrainian and allied officers, on the assessments of defense institutes that you yourselves read in your classified briefings. The **military truth on the ground** is not a secret — it is accessible. And it says that **Ukraine** needs more support, not less. ### What a Ukrainian retreat would mean for your security Some of you may believe that the **war in Ukraine** is distant, that its consequences are limited to **Eastern Europe**, that the **United States** can afford to watch from the sidelines. I invite you to reread your own statements on **American national security** over the past twenty years. You have all defended, at one point or another, the importance of alliances, the value of **deterrence**, the cost of a **fragile West**. A **Ukrainian retreat** in the face of **Russia** sends a signal to every actor watching: **Beijing** on **Taiwan**, **Pyongyang** on **South Korea**, **Tehran** on its regional ambitions. The world is interconnected, and signals of Western weakness travel fast. If **America** abandons **Ukraine**, it does not save money — it pays a far higher strategic price down the line. *I know that the domino theory argument has been overused. But there is a difference between rhetorical exaggeration and the reality of power dynamics. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he calculated that the West would not respond. He was half wrong. If the Senate blocks the Ukraine Support Act, Putin will be confirmed in his reading. And that reading is not abstract: it translates into bombs on Ukrainian cities.* ## The presidential veto as a convenient alibi ### Trump would oppose the bill — so what? **Donald Trump** would likely veto the **Ukraine Support Act** if it reached his desk. Some senators use this probability as justification for their inaction: what is the point of voting if the president vetoes? This logic is a **convenient alibi** that conceals a simpler reality: you do not want to vote. But the role of **Congress** is not to anticipate presidential vetoes and comply with them in advance. It is to **legislate**. To vote. To make heard the elected voice of the American people, even when that voice opposes the occupant of the **Oval Office**. A **Senate** vote for the **Ukraine Support Act**, followed by a presidential veto, would at least be a clear political act. A refusal to bring the bill to a vote is nothing other than **institutionalized cowardice**. ### The signal sent to Kyiv, Moscow, and the world The world is watching how the **US Senate** treats the **Ukraine Support Act**. **Kyiv** watches, hopes, and takes note. **Moscow** watches, calculates, and silently gloats. European capitals — **Paris**, **Berlin**, **Warsaw**, **Vilnius** — watch and assess just how far American solidarity will actually go. You may think your votes in the **Senate** are purely American domestic politics. Think again. They are read, analyzed, and interpreted in chancelleries around the world. Every week of blocking the **Ukraine Support Act** in the **Senate** is a week during which **Putin** can reasonably conclude that **America** is pulling back from its Ukrainian commitment. And that conclusion has real military consequences on the ground. *I speak to you as a French columnist, an outside observer of the American system. And from my foreign vantage point, what I see is clear as day: a US Senate allowing Russia to buy time while Ukraine bleeds. Geography does not erase moral and political responsibility.* ## The Republicans who had the courage to vote yes in the House ### Representatives who chose history over primaries In the **House of Representatives**, several **Republicans** voted for the **Ukraine Support Act** despite the political risks. These representatives deserve recognition: they demonstrated that it is possible to be **Republican** and to support **Ukraine**, to be loyal to American values of freedom and democracy without betraying one's party. That vote sent an important signal to the world: the **Republican Party** is not monolithically Trumpist on the Ukrainian question. These representatives know they risk difficult primaries. Some will probably not be reelected because of this vote. They voted anyway. This form of **political courage** deserves more than our admiration — it deserves to be imitated by their colleagues in the **Senate**. ### The Reagan precedent and support for freedom movements Under **Ronald Reagan**, the **Republican Party** defined itself in part by its firm support for peoples resisting Soviet expansion. The **Reagan Doctrine** accepted the cost of supporting freedom forces against communist regimes. **Zelensky**'s **Ukraine** in **2026** is no different from the resistance movements **Reagan** supported in the **1980s** — except that it fights against the same Russian imperial power under a different name. Where is the **Reagan Republican Party**? It is in those few courageous representatives who voted yes in the **House**. It is waiting, in the **Senate**, for you to show the same courage. **Reagan**'s legacy is not claimed in speeches — it is demonstrated through votes. *I know the Reagan comparison can seem easy or demagogic. But the history of Republican values on resistance to Russian expansionism is real. What happened between Reagan and Trump in the Republican Party's relationship with Russia is one of the most stunning political transformations of the past forty years. And this reversal has a human cost measured in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.* ## What you lose by blocking this bill ### The credibility of the United States as a guarantor power The **role of the United States** as a **guarantor power** for liberal democracies rests on an implicit promise: that **America** will be there when its partners need it. This promise was made through decades of treaties, alliances, and bilateral commitments. **Ukraine** is not a member of **NATO**, true. But in **1994** it signed the **Budapest Memorandum**, through which the **United States**, the **United Kingdom**, and **Russia** guaranteed its territorial integrity in exchange for giving up its **nuclear weapons**. Blocking the **Ukraine Support Act** in the **Senate** is telling the world that **American security guarantees** are not worth the paper they are written on. That is a lesson **South Korea**, **Taiwan**, **Poland**, and every American ally will take note of. The credibility of American deterrence is not measured in declarations — it is measured in actions. ### American public opinion and support for Ukraine Despite the pro-Russian disinformation circulating in certain media circuits, **American support for Ukraine** remains significant in polls. **Majorities of Americans**, including moderate Republicans, support helping **Ukraine** resist Russian aggression. This is not solely a Democratic or progressive position — it is a sentiment shared by Americans across all regions and backgrounds. By blocking the **Ukraine Support Act**, you are not following your constituents — you are following a line dictated by the Trumpist executive. This is not representation: it is submission. And your constituents, when they fully understand the implications of your inaction, may have a different opinion from yours about how they are being represented. *I do not know if this letter will change anything. American senators probably do not read French columns. But I write it anyway, because silence would be worse. Because naming things — calling cowardice by its name, calling courage by its name — has value in itself, even when the audience is limited.* ## What Zelensky deserves from you ### A man fighting for values that are yours too **Volodymyr Zelensky** leads his country under **daily bombardments**. He stays in **Kyiv**. He keeps governing, negotiating, pleading with every capital in the free world. He is not asking your soldiers to die for his country — he is asking for **weapons**, **ammunition**, **air defense systems**. He is asking for what your allies have always asked when they were in danger and **America** was strong. **Zelensky** is fighting for **democracy**, for the **rule of law**, for **national sovereignty** — all values that you claim to defend in your speeches. Consistency between speeches and votes is the bare minimum your voters should be able to demand of you. The **Ukraine Support Act** gives you the opportunity for that consistency. You are refusing it. That is your choice. And that choice says something about you. ### The legacy you will leave In **twenty years**, when historians write about this period, they will note that the **US Senate** had the opportunity to strengthen support for **Ukraine** at a decisive moment — and chose not to. They will note the names of the senators who blocked the vote. And they will ask the question that history always asks of those who failed to act: **What did you do when you could have acted?** I do not know which side of that question you want to be on. But I know the window for choosing will not stay open indefinitely. Wars have their own timelines, and the moments when support can change the course of events are rare and brief. This moment is now. The **Ukraine Support Act** is on your desk. The decision is yours. *I finish this letter with a humility I must admit: I am not American, I do not face the political pressures these senators face, and I do not pay with my votes the consequences of my opinions. My position as a columnist is more comfortable than theirs. But political discomfort does not justify moral abandonment. And that is all I have left to say.* ## Conclusion: One last chance to choose the right side ### The side of history or the side of fear History will judge the actors of this period by a simple criterion: did they have the courage to act when action was possible and necessary? The **House of Representatives** answered yes on **June 5, 2026**. The **Senate** has not yet answered. That answer only you can give. No one else. Not **Trump**, not your floor leader, not your campaign donors. You. Individually. Vote by vote. That is what representative democracy is. That is the oath you swore. Bring the **Ukraine Support Act** to a vote. Vote. Let the president veto it if he wants. And own your vote before your constituents and before history. ### What I am asking of you I am asking only one thing: bring this bill to a vote. Not necessarily to vote for it — bring it to a vote. Let **American democracy** function. Let every senator express their position transparently, before their voters and before the world. The procedural blocking of a bill passed by the **House** is not politics — it is institutional sabotage. **Ukraine** needs this aid. The **West** needs this signal. **America** needs to prove that it is still, in times of trial, the **reliable guarantor** of the democratic values it helped build. You have the power to provide that proof. Use it. Or own the fact that you did not. *I know this letter will change nothing. American senators have their agendas, their calculations, their constraints. But I needed to write it — for myself, for my readers, and for the infinitesimal chance that a staffer in a Senate office comes across it on a Tuesday morning and shows it to someone who can still make a difference.* ## A final appeal to European allies ### Europe must show the West does not wait for Washington If the **US Senate** continues blocking the **Ukraine Support Act**, **Europe** cannot remain passive. **European governments** — particularly **France**, **Germany**, the **United Kingdom**, and **Poland** — must redouble their own commitments to **Ukraine**. Not as a substitute for American aid, but as a signal that Western solidarity does not depend on a single vote in the **US Senate**. **Ukraine** must never feel alone. Nor must it feel that its future depends on the whim of a single legislative chamber in a single country. The **West** is larger than the **United States**, and this truth must translate into concrete actions, not just declarations of principle at **G7** summits. ### Zelensky deserves more than our fine words **Zelensky** hears speeches at every visit to a foreign capital. He hears promises, statements of support, affirmations of solidarity. What he needs to hear now are **votes**, **concrete financial commitments**, **equipment deliveries**. Fine words do not defend the Ukrainian sky against **Russian missiles**. **Patriot batteries** do. Give him the Patriots. Vote the aid. Act. The **war in Ukraine** is not only the Ukrainian people's fight — it is the fight of all of the **West** for the values that define its civilization: **freedom**, **sovereignty**, **rule of law**, **rejection of the law of the strongest**. Every vote that strengthens **Ukraine** is a vote for these values. Every blockade is a vote against them. The dividing line is clear. Choose your side. *I end this letter exhausted and outraged in equal measure. Exhausted by years of watching democracies hesitate to defend their own values. Outraged by the ease with which some elected officials sacrifice their convictions on the altar of electoral calculation. But I do not despair — because Ukraine holds. And as long as it holds, hope holds too.* **By Maxime Marquette, columnist** ## Columnist's transparency note ### Editorial stance I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies. I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events. ### Method and sources This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here. **Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies. **Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations. When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**. ### Nature of the analysis The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted. My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors. This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text. ## Sources ### Primary sources - [PBS NewsHour: House Passes Bill to Provide More Ukraine Aid and Impose New Sanctions on Russia — June 5, 2026](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/house-passes-bill-to-provide-more-ukraine-aid-and-impose-new-sanctions-on-russia) - [Breaking Defense: House Passes Ukraine Aid Bill with New Sanctions for Russia — June 2026](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/06/house-passes-ukraine-aid-bill-with-new-sanctions-for-russia/) - [Atlantic Council: The Ukraine Support Act Sends a Strong Signal Even If It Won't Send Weapons — June 2026](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-ukraine-support-act-sends-a-strong-signal-even-if-it-wont-send-weapons/) ### Secondary sources - [The Epoch Times: House Passes Bill Authorizing New Ukraine Aid, Russia Sanctions — 2026](https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/house-passes-bill-authorizing-new-ukraine-aid-russia-sanctions-6043333) - [Daily Sabah: House Approves Ukraine Aid, Russia Sanctions in Rebuke to Trump — June 2026](https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/house-approves-ukraine-aid-russia-sanctions-in-rebuke-to-trump/amp) - [The Straits Times: US House Backs Russia Sanctions, Ukraine Aid in Latest Blow to Trump — 2026](https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-house-backs-russia-sanctions-ukraine-aid-in-latest-blow-to-trump) --- Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/lettre-ouverte-aux-senateurs-republicains-qui-bloquent-l-ukraine-support-act-vou