Govt rushes to send Kyiv aid
Shipments to begin within hours: Biden
WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday rushed to send ammunition, weapons and other war supplies to Ukraine, after President Joe Biden signed a much-delayed bill to support the country as it struggles to hold back Russian advances.
The final approval of the legislation — which includes US$61 billion (2.25 trillion baht) for Kyiv out of a total of $95 billion in funding — comes after months of political wrangling as Ukrainian forces ran short of ammunition and suffered battlefield setbacks.
“I just signed into law the national security package that was passed by the House of Representatives this weekend, and by the Senate yesterday,” Mr Biden told reporters, saying he is “making sure the shipments start right away, in the next few hours.”
Minutes after Mr Biden spoke, the Pentagon announced a $1 billion package for Kyiv using the new funding, including air defence munitions, artillery rounds, ammunition for HIMARS precision rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons and armoured vehicles.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly expressed thanks on social media.
“I am grateful to President Biden, Congress, and all Americans who recognise that we must cut the ground under Putin’s feet rather than obeying him, as this is the only way to truly reduce threats to freedom,” he wrote.
Washington has announced new aid for Ukraine on just one other occasion this year, a $300 million package in March that was only made possible by using money that the Pentagon had saved on other purchases.
The State Department confirmed on Wednesday that the United States had secretly sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as part of the March assistance package, fulfilling a longstanding request from Kyiv.
“We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, adding that the “missiles arrived in Ukraine this month.”
Some Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles can hit targets up to 300 kilometres away, and a Defence Department spokesperson confirmed that was the long-range variant supplied to Ukraine.
The White House said last year that the United States sent a shorter-range variant of ATACMS that can travel 165km.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States plans to send more of the longrange missiles to Ukraine, but warned that “there is no silver bullet.”
The legislation Mr Biden signed on Wednesday passed after months of acrimonious debate among lawmakers over how or even whether to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion, which Moscow launched in February 2022.
A similar bill passed the Senate in February.
But it stalled in the House of Representatives while Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — heeding calls from ex-president Donald Trump and his hardline allies — demanded concessions from Mr Biden on immigration policies, before Mr Johnson made a sudden reversal.
The United States has been a key military backer of Ukraine, committing tens of billions of dollars in security assistance since the start of Russia’s invasion.
But a squabbling Congress had not approved large-scale funding for Kyiv for nearly a year and a half.
The bill signed by Mr Biden also provides for much-needed humanitarian assistance to Sudan, Haiti and Gaza.