Steve Roberts.

As Rep. Matt Gaetz mounted his successful campaign to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, he accused his rival of making a secret “side deal” with Democrats to fund Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. Even with McCarthy now sidelined and the House in chaos, sane Republicans must step forward and push ahead with a generous aid package for Ukraine. In public, not in secret. Proudly, not timidly.

When Congress passed legislation to keep the government open through mid-November, it omitted any mention of President Biden’s request for $20.6 billion in additional aid to Kyiv. It was a cowardly, if pragmatic, decision, but now Congress must face down the isolationists in the Republican party, cheered on by Donald Trump, who would lead this country into a disastrous retreat from its international responsibilities.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, makes the best case for opposing the defeatists and denialists in his own party: “The United States isn’t arming Ukraine out of a sense of charity. We are backing a fellow democracy because it is in our direct interest to do so. … America’s two most powerful adversaries have struck up a ‘friendship without limits.’ If we fail to help Ukraine stop Russia in its tracks, there is every reason to believe Russia and China will both be emboldened.”

After almost 20 months of war and with no end in sight, Ukraine fatigue is real. In a recent CNN poll, 55% of Americans opposed additional funding for Kyiv, with only 45% favoring more aid. Behind those numbers is a gaping partisan divide, with 62% of Democrats backing Biden’s request and 71% of Republicans rejecting it.

Trump has been fueling that opposition with increasingly hostile comments deriding the war, and in a recent House vote, 93 Republicans backed a Gaetz amendment to bar all future military aid to Ukraine. That’s up from 70 members who supported a similar ban last July.

Fortunately, a majority of Republicans still support Ukraine — 126 House members voted against the Gaetz proposal — but their resolve is about to be severely tested. While Congress has already authorized $43.9 billion in military support, only $5.2 billion remains unspent.

Sure, that’s a lot of money, and yes, there are urgent needs here at home. But Ukrainian forces cannot survive without our help. As Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press: “If there’s no new money, they’re going to start feeling it by Thanksgiving.”

The U.S. has a profound moral obligation to support a “fellow democracy” against a tyrannical invader. But the stakes are much higher than that. There is no cheap or easy option. We either pay now to thwart Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions, or risk confronting a far higher bill in the future, when other aspiring autocrats — starting in Beijing — are emboldened by Washington’s weakness and threaten other allies on other battlefields around the world.

As Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and former Air Force general, told the Washington Post: “When I was a kid, if you had a bully on the playground — that bully never stops unless he gets punched in the nose. And so, we’ve got to stand up to Putin here.”

“Helping Ukraine is helping the whole world,” asserts Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “If Ukraine falls, Russia will start a big war. And not only on the territory of our country.”

And it’s not only Russia the West needs to worry about. Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president and a candidate for the Republican nomination, warned recently that his former boss does not “understand Americans’ national interest in supporting the Ukrainian military.” In an interview with the AP, Pence added: “Make no mistake, China is watching.”

So are our allies in Europe, who look to Washington for leadership, not lethargy. “U.S. officials,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “say the political uncertainty in Washington sends a terrible signal to the international community that President Biden has rallied in support of Kyiv’s fight against Russia. In addition, Ukraine’s supporters fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will come to believe he can wait out the U.S.”

Key Republicans insist they will not abandon Ukraine. Expect Congress to pass a new aid package “in very short order,” vows South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds. Adds Sen. John Thune, the deputy GOP leader who also represents South Dakota, “This is an issue that we have to deal with. And we will.” They must keep their word, even if it means overriding Trump’s ignorant isolationism. America simply cannot let the bullies win.