The package has about $ 20 billion in defense spending for Ukraine and US allies in the region and $ 8.5 billion to keep the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy providing services and paying salaries. There is $ 3 billion in global food and humanitarian aid programs, including money to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing to the United States and to motivate American farmers to grow wheat and other crops to replace the huge amounts of food usually consumed by the United States. The package, which government officials estimate will last five months, is more than double the original $ 13.6 billion aid package introduced by Congress earlier last month and is now almost exhausted. With the bloody war raging in the third month, the measure was designed to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that US weapons and other aid supplies would not disappear. “People should and will hold Russia accountable,” Biden said. “And as long as the attacks and atrocities continue, we will continue to provide military assistance.” Zelensky thanked the United States for his nightly video speech to his nation. “President Biden rightly said today that this step is not cheap,” he said. “But the negative consequences for the whole world of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and against democracy are so enormous that US support is comparatively necessary.” Biden’s request to Congress comes with strong Russian attacks under way in eastern and southern Ukraine and Zelensky’s calls for large-scale and offensive weapons. The United States and others have pledged to increase supplies of such equipment, and Biden’s plan outlines include artillery, armored vehicles, and anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons and ammunition. Biden said the new package “meets the needs of the Ukrainian military in the coming critical weeks and months” and begins a transition to long-term security assistance that “will help Ukraine prevent and continue to defend itself against Russian aggression.” The proposal also comes as Russia has cut off gas supplies to two NATO allies, Poland and Bulgaria, raising concerns that the war and its effects, in one form or another, could eventually spread elsewhere. . Biden promised that the United States would work to support the energy needs of its allies, saying “we will not allow Russia to intimidate or blackmail us into withdrawing sanctions.” The bipartisan support in Congress for Ukraine is strong and there is no doubt that lawmakers will approve the aid. But Republicans said they were considering the details of the proposal, including the balance between defense and other spending, and would not raise reflexes behind Biden’s $ 33 billion. South Dakota Senator John Thune, the No. 2 leader of the Senate GOP, said that while Republicans are committed to helping Ukraine, “it is a pretty impressive number.” Biden’s billion-dollar request is more than half of the total proposed $ 60 billion budget for next year for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development. The $ 20 billion defense package in Thursday’s package accounts for about a third of Russia’s total military budget and far exceeds Ukraine’s $ 6 billion defense spending. Both figures for 2021 were compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Institute, a Swedish defense organization. Biden has proposed $ 800 billion to the Pentagon for next year. According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the United States has spent nearly $ 2 trillion on Iraq and another $ 2.3 trillion on Afghanistan since 9/11. Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are over $ 8 trillion. The biggest possible obstacles in Congress are Democrats’ desire to also consider billions more to fight the pandemic, and the GOP’s attempt to force a vote to renew some of the Trump-era immigration restrictions that seem likely to divide Democrats. But the combination of these components yields a complex political mix that could slow down Ukraine’s money when it counts every day for Kiev’s superpowers. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said he wanted to combine spending with Ukraine and COVID-19 – money for the virus receives only lukewarm GOP support – but was particularly silent on the issue. on Thursday. Biden seemed to be opening the door to let Ukraine move separately, something that would speed up his pace. “They can do it separately or together,” Biden said, “but we need them both.” Biden called on lawmakers on Thursday to provide $ 22.5 billion in vaccines, treatments, tests and assistance to other countries in continuing efforts to curb COVID-19. But this request, which he made last month, seems symbolic. In a compromise with Republicans, the Senate Democrats have already agreed to cut it to $ 10 billion, and a revival of that higher seems unlikely. Biden also called on Congress on Thursday to seize new powers to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs, saying the United States was seizing luxury yachts and “bad” homes. He proposed to let the government use the proceeds from the sale of these properties to help the people of Ukraine. The president wants lawmakers to criminalize “knowingly or intentionally possessing revenue directly from corrupt transactions with the Russian government”, to double the statute of limitations for money laundering offenses by 10 years, and to extend its definition to ” U.S. law to include sanctions avoidance efforts. In recent weeks, the United States and its global allies have imposed sanctions on dozens of oligarchs and their families, along with hundreds of Russian officials involved in or believed to be supporting the invasion of Ukraine. The White House says the new tools will harden the impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy and its ruling class, making it harder to avoid sanctions. Of the new money Biden is seeking for military purposes, $ 6 billion would be for arming Ukraine directly and $ 5.4 billion for replacing U.S. supplies being sent to the region. There is also $ 4.5 billion in other security assistance to Ukraine and US allies, and $ 2.6 billion to continue to deploy US forces in the region. The proposed expenditure also has $ 1.2 billion to help Ukrainian refugees flee to the United States with financial assistance, English language teaching, and assistance in school districts with Ukrainian students. There is $ 1.6 billion in global food programs to make up for the shortfalls caused by the effects of the war on Ukraine’s food production.
Associated Press authors Chris Megerian, Fatima Hussein, Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report. __ In an earlier edition of this story, the Associated Press erroneously reported that the United States had spent about $ 2.2 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since September 11, 2001, according to the Brown University Costs of War Project. The right cost, according to the Brown Costs of War, is estimated at nearly $ 2 trillion for Iraq and another $ 2.3 trillion for Afghanistan. The cost of post-9/11 wars for Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere is more than $ 8 trillion.
