The US Congress is developing a new project to help Ukraine, which proposes to allocate money to it in the form of a loan

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, together with representatives of key congressional committees on national security, is developing a new, alternative project to help Ukraine.

Source. This was reported by the BBC with reference to the American TV channel NBC News.

While the issue of military and financial support for Kyiv has been blocked in Congress for about six months, the authors of the new draft hope that it will be able to pass Congress and will not alienate conservative Republicans who oppose further funding of Ukraine at the expense of American taxpayers, the TV channel's sources say.

The authors of the bill are discussing a proposal to treat some of the non-military aid to Ukraine as a kind of loan, said Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He also suggested that Russian assets confiscated in the United States under sanctions could also be used as collateral for a loan to Ukraine. The project could also include a "loyal repayment system" to help Ukraine, he added.

The project is still at a preliminary stage of development and is still far from being implemented, NBC sources said.

The proposal to provide a loan as part of an aid package to Ukraine is aimed at easing the concerns of conservative Republicans in Congress, who have criticised the billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv and said they would not support sending Ukraine more US taxpayer money without a long-term plan to win the war.

According to McCaul, the bill would make Russia at least partially responsible for paying for Ukraine's reconstruction. According to him, the drafters of the document are considering two factors – in addition to the loan programme, it is also a bill that would allow the US authorities to seize assets linked to Russian assets that have been sanctioned "to help pay for Russia's war crimes".

"It's a very popular idea in the House of Representatives," he says.

Last week, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham supported the idea of a loan, recalling that it was proposed by former US President Donald Trump. Last month, he said that Congress should not provide financial assistance to any country unless it is in the form of a loan.

The allocation of funding for military and economic assistance to Ukraine has been effectively blocked in the US Congress since October last year. At first, this was due to the change of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and then the process was slowed down by criticism from Trump, who is expected to become the Republican candidate in the next US presidential election.

Background. As a reminder, the US Senate has approved a $95bn aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It still has to pass the House of Representatives, which is not easy.