Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who became Speaker of the House in January, publicly vowed on Monday to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort, dropping previous suggestions that a new House majority could cut U.S. military and financial investment in Kiev’s efforts to repel Russian invasion. .

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem shortly after speaking in the Israeli Knesset, Mr. McCarthy resolutely fought back after being asked by a reporter for the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti if he could turn down aid and weapons for Ukraine.

“I vote for aid to Ukraine, I support aid to Ukraine,” Mr. McCarthy told a reporter, who prefaced his question by saying: “We know that you do not support the current unrestricted and uncontrolled supply of arms and aid. to Ukraine”.

Mr. McCarthy, who had earlier said there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine, then denounced Russia’s actions in the conflict.

“I do not support what your country has done with Ukraine; I also do not support your killing of children,” McCarthy told a Russian reporter. “And we will continue to support because the rest of the world sees it for what it is.”

These statements stood in stark contrast to Mr. McCarthy’s recent signals of aid to Ukraine amid pressure from far-right Republican lawmakers to test US support for Kiev and stop US funding of the conflict.

Mr. McCarthy’s words drew a storm of applause from Republican hawks, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who thanked Mr. McCarthy. on twitter “For making a convincing statement about Russia on the world stage.”

Mr. McCarthy’s promise may embarrass him because of the small but critical fact of his conference, which openly opposed Ukraine’s further funding of the war.

This group of mostly ultra-conservative Republicans includes several members of the House of Representatives who voted to remove Mr. McCarthy’s speaker’s gavel in several consecutive ballots earlier in the year. It also includes right-wing representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, who has become one of Mr. McCarthy’s closest allies.

In recent weeks, as Republicans struggled to unite around a spending cut plan ahead of talks with the White House on a debt ceiling, Ms. Green has waged a relentless campaign against continued military and other forms of aid to Ukraine.

She called for zeroing this part of the budget, accusing the Biden administration ofdeceived” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and arguing that the aid being provided makes the United States too active a participant in the country, stating that “Ukraine is not the 51st state.”

Under pressure from Ms. Green and others, Mr. McCarthy has recently been reticent in his public comments about Ukraine. Last month, the speaker declined to share details of a phone call with Zelenskiy, simply saying it was a “good conversation.”

But right-wing Ukraine skeptics recently lost one of their most effective platforms for getting their message across to voters after Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News. Mr. Carlson, who promoted a similar message about Ukraine in his prime time, provided Ms. Green and others with a permanent platform to reach out to millions of Republican-leaning viewers as a means of putting pressure on Mr. McCarthy.