President Biden has delivering remarks at the White House, confirming that he has asked Congress to approve $33bn in funding to aid Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
The US President argued that more funding for arms and humanitarian assistance was “critical” for helping Ukraine combat Russian attacks, adding: “The cost of this fight, it’s not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine.”
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$ 20.4 billion of the $ 33 billion aid will go to the military and security segment for Ukraine alone. It should be noted that $ 20.4 billion is more than 20 annual budgets of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the purchase and modernization of all equipment and weapons.
Another portion of the $33 billion is a sum of $8.5 billion to help support the Ukrainian economy. The rest will go to "to fund U.S. efforts to bolster European security in cooperation with NATO allies."
President Biden emphasised that his new request for $33bn in assistance to Ukraine should not be taken as an attack on Russia. “We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Joe Biden stressed.
But Russia “is the aggressor”, he said. “No ifs, and or buts about it.”
The US president also taking steps to ensure the money raised from assets seized from sanctioned allies of Vladimir Putin directly aids Ukraine. The president is sending a proposal to Congress to make it easier to transfer those funds to humanitarian projects in Ukraine.
We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes and other ill-begotten gains.
“We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine every day,” said Biden.
According to CNBC’s comments on the theme, the administration said this is intended to equip Kyiv and European partners with additional artillery, armored vehicles and anti-armor and anti-air capabilities, accelerate cyber capabilities and advanced air defense systems, and help clear landmines and improvised explosive devices.
As CNBC reports, the two-part request to Congress comes as the war enters its third month and as U.S. military leaders say their strategic objectives in Ukraine are shifting to reflect a medium-term goal and a long-term goal.
In the immediate future, the aim is to arm Ukrainian forces so that they can secure an outright victory in the war by expelling Russia from Ukraine entirely.
But longer term, the U.S. now seeks more broadly to weaken Russia’s entire power structure by tying up its troops in a war of attrition while crippling its economy with sanctions and trade embargoes.
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