THANKS A $61 BILLION, USA!
Zel’s grateful for ‘vital’ Ukr. defense aid
WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States Wednesday after President Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $61 billion for Kyiv and an unrelated potential ban on the social-media platform TikTok.
“Today’s American military aid package for Ukraine is vital. I thank all Americans who work in defense enterprises and every state that manufactures weapons that are now really protecting democracy and our way of life,” Zelensky said in a message posted to X.
“All of the current cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, as well as every sign of support for our protection, is strengthening both of our nations. They also strengthen all of our partners and the entire world, which wants to live by the rules rather than under conditions of violence and terror.”
The Ukrainian leader said he would “make every effort to compensate for the half-year spent in debates and doubts.”
Pressuring Putin
“We must turn everything the occupier has accomplished during this time — as well as everything Putin intends to do — against him,” he said of the Russian president.
Zelensky ended his message by saying that “it is critical that the agreements President Biden and I reached be fully implemented” — without specifying which agreements — and adding, “Thank you, America!”
Hours earlier, Biden hailed the legislation as “a good day for world peace” but did not address the component of the bill that requires Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok within 270 days or face a ban.
The legislation also includes about $26 billion for the IsraelHamas conflict, mostly in support for the Israeli military invasion of the Gaza Strip, along with $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
Another $8 billion aims to counter China, with much of those funds going to Taiwan.
“This weekend, there were reports — I find this amazing — there were reports of cheers breaking out of the trenches in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said.
The president added: ”In the next few hours — literally a few hours — we’re going to begin sending in equipment to Ukraine for air defense munitions, for artillery, for rocket systems and armored vehicles. This package is literally an investment not only in Ukraine’s security, but in Europe’s security and our own security.”
Int’l aid, domestic jobs
Biden said the package would support jobs in 40 states because current US military supplies will be sent to Ukraine, with replenishment coming from new production.
The TikTok provision was attached to the aid bill with bipartisan support in Congress due to data-security and content manipulation concerns.
Biden said last month he supported the restriction, despite his own campaign using the app — and indicating Wednesday it would continue to do so.
Former President Donald Trump rallied late-breaking Republican opposition to that provision, saying shutting down TikTok would empower US-owned platforms like Facebook to increase political censorship.
In brief remarks after signing
All of the current cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, as well as every sign of support for our protection, is strengthening both our nations.
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after President Biden inked the aid package
the bill, Biden criticized China for assisting Moscow’s assault on Ukraine — accusing Beijing of “providing components and know-how to boost Russia’s defense production” — but didn’t mention TikTok.
Biden, whose detractors have branded him “Genocide Joe,” also highlighted the $1 billion in aid for Gaza and said “Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay.”
Biden encouraged Americans to consider the spending part of an interventionist imperative that he said is widely supported by “most of us.”
“We don’t let tyrants win, we oppose them. We don’t merely watch global events unfold, we shape them,” Biden said.
“That’s what it means to be the world’s superpower and the world’s leading democracy,” he added.
“Some of our MAGA Republican friends reject that vision, but this bill makes it clear there is a bipartisan consensus for that kind of American leadership.”