US military aid to be rushed to Ukraine as deal is finally agreed
US President Joe Biden has signed into law a $95bn (£76.4bn) war aid measure that includes assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after a long, painful battle with Republicans in Congress over urgently needed assistance for Ukraine.
The new law also has a provision that would force social media site TikTok to be sold or be banned in the US.
Under the $95bn aid package, Ukraine would receive $61bn (£50bn). About $4bn would be dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defence systems, more than $9bn would go toward humanitarian assistance in Gaza and about $8bn for helping US allies in the Indo-Pacific region and countering China.
Mr Biden said: “We rose to the moment, we came together and we got it done. Now we need to move fast, and we are.”
He also signed an initial aid package of military assistance for Ukraine, the first tranche of the $61bn aid, and said shipment would begin in the “next few hours”.
It is expected to include air defence capabilities, artillery rounds, armoured vehicles and other weapons to shore up Ukrainian forces, who have seen morale sink as Russian President Vladimir Putin has racked up win after win. Significant damage has been done to the Biden administration’s effort to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion during the funding impasse that dates back to August.
Even with the new weapons, it is unlikely Ukraine will immediately recover after months of setbacks.
Longer term, it remains uncertain if Ukraine, after months of losses in Eastern Ukraine and sustaining massive damage to its infrastructure, can make enough progress to sustain American political support before burning through the latest influx of money.
Tucked into the measure is a provision that gives TikTok’s Beijingbased parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell it or face a nationwide prohibition in the United States. The president can grant an extension of 90 days, if he certifies that there is a path to divestiture and “significant progress” toward executing it.
The administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have called the social media site a growing national security concern. But the president is now facing criticism from users of the app, which researchers have found is a primary news source for a third of Americans under the age of 30.