A bill clearing the way for billions of dollars in fresh Ukraine funding amid advances from Russia’s invasion forces and Kyiv’s shortages of military supplies was passed late Tuesday by the US Senate. And
The Senate approved by 79 to 18 for four bills passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday, after House Republican leaders abruptly switched course last week and allowed a vote on the $95 billion in mostly military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and U.S. partners in the Indo-Pacific.
The four bills were combined into one package in the Senate, which President Joe Biden said he would sign into law on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was grateful to U.S. lawmakers for approving “vital” aid for Ukraine.
“This vote reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world,” Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The largest provides $61 billion in critically needed funding for Ukraine; a second provides $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones around the world, and a third mandates $8.12 billion to “counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific.
A fourth, which the House added to the package last week, includes a potential ban on the Chinese-controlled social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.
Biden’s administration is already preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first sourced from the bill, two U.S. officials told Reuters. It includes vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield.
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