Biden to ask Congress for $33 billion Ukraine war funds

President Joe Biden is asking Congress to authorize $33 billion in new funding to address the war in Ukraine, including $20 billion in military assistance, a senior US official said Thursday.

The bulk of the huge new package will be the "$20 billion in military and other security assistance. This means weapons and ammunition flowing to the Ukrainian people," the official said. A further $8.5 billion in economic aid will "help the government of Ukraine respond to the immediate crisis," while some $3 billion is proposed to fund humanitarian assistance and address the global food supply price shock resulting from Russia's onslaught against Ukraine, a major wheat exporter.

The proposed package also includes funding to address economic disruptions in the United States and elsewhere, ranging from the impact on food supplies to availability of critical components used in high-tech manufacturing.

Biden was due to announce his request in remarks from the White House at 10:45 am (1445 GMT). Congress needs to approve the request, and while both Republicans and Biden's

Democratic party have signaled they are keen to keep backing Ukraine, an unrelated dispute over Biden's request for billions of dollars in new Covid pandemic funding threatens to complicate the approval process. The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the spending package would keep Ukraine's government and military going through to the new US fiscal year at the start of October.

"The president's funding request is what we believe is needed to enable Ukraine's success over the next five months of this war. And we have every expectation that our partners and allies, particularly those of the G7, as well as many other countries, will continue to provide comparable levels of assistance," the official said.

The money "will allow us to ensure that Ukraine has the weapons it needs to wage this fight, to replenish our own stockpiles, help other countries shift away from dependence on Russian weapons, enable Ukraine's government to continue performing basic functions, address food insecurity exacerbated by Russia's war of aggression and support Ukrainian refugees and the countries that are providing them sanctuary," the official said.

The military aid funding request contains more than 20 Bn dollars in security and military assistance for Kyiv and regional Washington Allies, 8.5 Bn dollars in economic and financial support, and another 3 Bn dollars in food and humanitarian assistance. Biden said Thursday that it isn’t cheap. But caving to violence is going to be pricey if the US lets it to happen. Even though the United States has already declared support for the Ukrainian people and forces, the funding requests are a significant stepping up of Assistance.

The entire package, which government officials projected would last 5-months, is almost 2.4fold on the primary 13.6 Bn dollars support legislation that US governing body enacted in early March and now is almost exhausted.