By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – The U.S. Congress announced Thursday it could authorize hundreds of millions in humanitarian aid and additional military funding for Ukraine, starting next week. This will help to strengthen the government in Kyiv in the aftermath of Russia’s incursion.

Both Democrats and Republicans voted for sharper increases to the amount of aid already sent, a departure from traditional party divisions. Since the beginning of 2013, President Joe Biden has provided $400 million to Ukraine in military aid.

Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives) stated that the lawmakers are willing to give $600 million to Ukraine to purchase “lethal defense arms” to fight Russia’s growing attack.

Pelosi said to reporters that she was working to make sure Ukraine has humanitarian assistance and lethal defence weapons. She also told them that $600million is being sent to Ukraine in order to aid the country’s fight against its own fighting.

The next twelve months will see Ukraine need $1B in humanitarian aid. This was the statement of Representative Barbara Lee, Democratic Chair of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Aid, at a Washington Press Conference.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Republican, Senator Jim Risch also supported additional assistance for Ukraine. On a conference phone call, he stated to reporters that “offerings differ in terms of what would be used for defense weaponry and other things such as humanitarian need, which are likely to be significant.”

The senators were able to discuss providing additional $500 million of military aid for Ukraine during the failed negotiations on a bipartisan bill aimed at punishing Russia and boosting Ukraine. This effort was stopped by Democrats and Republicans who disagreed on whether sanctions should be imposed only after an invasion or whether secondary sanctions should be imposed on Russian-owned banks that do business with them.

Biden has not yet stated how much money the administration would like Congress authorized. Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the White House said that they were still evaluating the situation. She stated that she would continue to monitor the situation and was prepared to handle any potential humanitarian or ongoing needs.

The question of whether the funding would be authorized in an emergency spending bill or part of a larger measure that will keep the government functioning after March 11th funding runs out was unclear.