Biden wants another $33bn for Ukraine weapons and aid
US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for a $33 billion increase in spending on Ukrainian defence and humanitarian aid.
He wants authorities to be given greater powers to seize and sell Russian oligarchs’ assets to help to fund the war effort.
Thursday’s request includes more than $20bn for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5bn in direct economic assistance to the government in Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian aid.
“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Mr Biden said.
“It’s not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”
Mr Biden said funds of $13.6bn approved by Congress last month had nearly all been spent.
“We either back Ukrainian people as they defend their country or we stand by as Russia continues its atrocities and aggression,” he said.
Mr Biden’s request came on the day that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “an absurdity” as he visited the sites of alleged massacres by Moscow’s troops.
Mr Guterres urged Russia to co-operate with investigations into alleged atrocities as he toured three ruined towns before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian forces are refocusing their efforts on Ukraine’s eastern regions after failing to seize Kyiv quickly.
US officials believe there will be a long and bloody battle and that Ukrainians will need new kinds of weapons.
Mr Biden said he hoped Congress would move quickly to authorise the extra funding.
He is seeking politicians’ backing to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs and distribute the proceeds to support Ukraine.
“We’re going to seize their yachts” and other “ill-begotten gains”, Mr Biden said. “These are bad guys.”
He also wants to make it unlawful for anyone to “knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government”.
Ukrainian special forces operating behind enemy lines are hitting supply columns and hampering the Russian offensive, western officials have said.
In addition, the regular army’s ability to launch rapid counter-attacks soon after the Russian invaders have taken a village or town was proving decisive in buying time for the country to build up its forces.
By contrast, significant casualties have depleted Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces, whose expertise would take considerable time to replace and rebuild, officials told a media briefing.
Ukraine’s specialist troops, who are understood to have been trained by American and
British special forces, have honed their tactics considerably during the fighting, creating havoc by taking out vulnerable Russian columns.
Infiltrating deep behind the front line, they have been able to ambush vehicles carrying ammunition, food and vital fuel for Russia’s tanks.
Sources told The National that the Ukrainian soldiers have developed their tactics, driving quad bikes to cross the country quickly and planting anti-tank mines while using small drones to track and attack targets.
They have called in accurate artillery fire on their opponents, causing further casualties in addition to the Russian death toll that is “rising every day”, officials said.
“Ukrainian special forces are operating behind Russian lines and exploiting the vulnerability of long supply routes to great effect,” a western official said.
“It might be small scale; it might not be like defeating the entire Russian presence in an oblast [region], but all of it buys time to allow the Ukrainians to continue to build up their capabilities.”
The Spetsnaz along with Russia’s VDV airborne forces suffered severe losses in the early days of the war when they tried to seize Kyiv without adequate armour protection or support fire. It now appears that their losses have continued.
“The Russians have lost experience in their elite forces,” an official said. “It all takes time to rebuild that expertise and that number of personnel and equipment that they need to pose a threat of a significant nature to others in the future.”
Although the Russians are still managing to make some advances in the Donbas region, they are continually being harassed by the Ukrainian army’s use of swift counteroffensives.
“On Ukrainian abilities to counterattack,” the western official said, “they have proven remarkable in that regard. Even when the Russians take a village or town, Ukrainians frequently counterattack immediately so the Russians have no time to bed in or control the situation and they’re immediately on the back foot again.”
Despite having tracked armoured vehicles, the Russians also seemed to be held up by heavy rainfall in eastern Ukraine, suggesting they lacked training or confidence.
“They are not advancing in heavy rain. It’s surprising as they have the ability to operate off the roads but have chosen not to,” the official said.
Although Moscow’s generals have promised to seize the entire Black Sea coast to link up with the small breakaway enclave of Transnistria in Moldova, the realisation of that ambition
Sources said soldiers are driving quad bikes to cross the country quickly, planting anti-tank mines and using small drones
is unlikely because they would have to take the now heavily defended city of Odesa, requiring an amphibious assault.
“We’ve seen from the sinking of the Moskva that the Russian navy is now wary of approaching that coastline for fear of a subsequent attack, so it has moved farther away from the coast.”
Officials also confirmed that the West’s main effort was to “inflict cost” on Moscow by supplying weapons to degrade its military, agreeing with a British defence minister’s claim that it was “completely legitimate” for Ukraine to attack targets in Russia.
“We are trying to inflict cost on Russia to reduce its offensive capabilities,” the official said. “Many of our policies are designed to have that effect.”