Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said he is ready to negotiate about Ukraine despite an ongoing Russian offensive. 

The comments come as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the U.S. last week to address Congress and plea for more aid. Lawmakers did pass a spending bill that included nearly $50 billion dollars in additional aid to Ukraine.

“A little over half of it is going to go toward military assistance. A lot of it will go toward economic aid and humanitarian aid,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago.

Quigley is co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and was appointed to the escort committee for Zelenskyy’s joint address to Congress.

“This is a country whose economy is crushed because of the war and humanitarian aid is obvious. This is a very tough, cold winter. And the Russians are further committing war crimes by targeting civilian targets and their particular infrastructure,” Quigley said. “It’s a life and death situation. It’s an important role for our country to help.”

Despite current bipartisan support of Ukraine, Republicans gaining control of the House of Representatives could impact future funding for Ukraine, especially with a handful of far-right Republicans against the current funding.

“We passed such a large package to make sure that we could probably take care of all the needs for another year until at least the leadership issues on the Republican side are taken care of,” Quigley said.

Despite this shift of power, Quigley still believes that Ukrainian aid will be a bipartisan topic.

“This is a Reagan-Republican party versus the relative newcomers as far as how they support this effort,” he said.