US Senate approves military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

The United States Senate approved, after months of blockage, a new military aid package worth 61 billion dollars (57 billion euros), which could be sent to Kiev this week.

The upper house of the US Congress approved on Tuesday night, by a majority of 79 votes against 18, a global package of 95 billion dollars (around 90 billion euros) to help Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan .

US President Joe Biden said the US would “start sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week”, according to a statement released after approval in the Democratic-majority Senate.

“I will sign this bill and speak to the American people when it reaches my desk,” the Democrat said. “A bipartisan majority in the Senate has joined the House [dos Representantes, a câmara baixa, de maioria republicana] to answer the call of history at this critical inflection point,” Biden said.

Zelensky has already reacted

This Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful to the United States Senate for approving (…) vital aid to Ukraine”.

“Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, artillery and air defense are essential tools to more quickly restore a just peace,” said Zelensky, in a message on social media.

Zelensky also praised the position of the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders in Tuesday’s vote.

What the aid package includes

The package includes the shipment of ammunition, including air defense and artillery ammunition, requested by Ukrainian forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weaponry.

Last week, the director of the US intelligence agency CIA, Bill Burns, argued that Ukraine could lose the war if Kiev does not receive military aid by the end of this year.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also told members of the House of Representatives that conditions on the battlefield were changing and that Russian forces were making substantial gains at the front.

The approval followed weeks of high-tension debate between Republicans and Democrats and even within the Republican Party, where a radical faction close to former President Donald Trump even threatens to try to remove the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, accusing -of being an accomplice of the White House.

USA has already sent more than 44 billion dollars

Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the US has sent more than 44 billion dollars (about 41 billion euros) in weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine.

For most of that time, aid packages were transferred over a period of a few weeks, but money began to run out from last September.

In mid-December, the Pentagon reported that it had run out of aid funds to Kiev and had to stop sending weapons because, without authorization from Congress, it was unable to provide such support.

With Lusa