By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators have been negotiating for weeks for a bipartisan bill that would punish Russia for the buildup of troops near Ukraine. However, aides stated on Friday that they are still looking for a solution.

In what appeared to be rare instances of bipartisan cooperation, senators representing both sides had been saying for weeks that they were ready to quickly act to help Ukraine. They wanted sanctions against Russia to ease the situation and provide more military support for Kyiv.

A small group consisting of five Democrats and five Republican Senators was involved in discussions on a bill over several weeks. However, they left Washington without coming to an agreement.

A spokesman said that “We are at a deadlock” and added that legislators were still trying to figure out a way forward.

Russia has been increasing its presence at Ukraine’s borders since months. NATO should pull all troops and arms from eastern Europe. This would also prevent the ex-Soviet state ever from becoming a member of the U.S. military alliance. They are not demands that the West will accept.

There were two major sticking points during the U.S. Senate discussions. There is disagreement among Senators over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and a proposal to impose secondary sanction on Russian banks.

Republicans want to put sanctions on the pipeline to transport gas to Germany. However, Democrats claim that this would cause a break in unity between Washington DC and Europe during the Ukraine crisis.

After weeks of negotiations, Senator Bob Menendez (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) said that he believed his colleagues Democrats and Republicans were at an impasse. 

The top Republican on the committee, Senator Jim Risch said that he agreed to Menendez. He told reporters that the impasse was temporary but that there were other options.

Another possibility would be to introduce a more compact bill, which would contain less-controversial parts of

A Ukraine aid package would include military assistance but it leaves out other divisive issues.