US will provide more help to Ukraine this week, according to Biden

US will provide more help to Ukraine this week, according to Biden

According to US President Joe Biden, the US will begin supplying Ukraine with new weaponry and equipment in a few days.

The US Senate gave its approval late on Tuesday to a $95 billion (£76 billion) foreign aid package that includes military assistance for Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine.

In order to provide relief "this week," Mr. Biden promised to sign it "as soon as it reaches my desk" on Wednesday.

As Russia continues to advance in its invasion, Ukraine has lately increased its requests for help from the West.

$61 billion in military assistance for Ukraine is part of the plan. The Senate approved it by a bipartisan vote of 79–18.

Tuesday night's ratification followed the bill's Saturday passage by the US House of Representatives.

In a statement, Mr. Biden celebrated its passing, referring to it as "critical legislation [that] will make our nation as well as world more secure as we defend our friends who are defending themselves toward tyrants like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as well as terrorists like Hamas."

"After more than six months of hard work and numerous twists and turns in the road, America sends an invitation to the entire world: we will not turn our back on you," said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, responded to the vote by saying it "reinforces America's role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world".

A handful of conservatives opposed to further money for Ukraine blocked the House of Representatives from voting on a similar aid package that the Senate had approved in February.

Republicans and Democrats in the lower house banded together last week to get around this resistance.

In the end, they settled on a package bill that included the foreign assistance, fresh penalties against China, Iran, and Russia, legislation to seize Russian assets held by Western institutions, and a clause requiring the Chinese business ByteDance to sell the well-known social media platform TikTok.

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A majority of Republicans in the House voted against the foreign assistance bill on Saturday.

A few Senate Republicans who opposed any more help to Ukraine also rejected the measure.

Along with two Democrats and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who opposed giving Israel additional offensive weaponry, fifteen people voted against the measure.

"More funding for Ukraine's budget will only exacerbate the crisis and result in more casualties," said Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday.

"No one at the White House, the Pentagon, or the state secretary can articulate what victory looks like in this fight."

Ukraine's military, which have recently struggled with a lack of ammunition and air defense equipment, could get a major boost from the assistance package.

In the most recent of many drone and missile attacks, Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, had two casualties on Tuesday, according to the authorities, in a residential neighborhood.

Oleksandr Pivnenko, the commander of Ukraine's National Guard, said he anticipated a Russian military effort to attack the city, which is close to the Russian border.

The US provided Ukraine with more than $40 billion in military assistance between February 2022 and January 2024, according to German research group Kiel Institute.

Assistance to Taiwan and Israel

The foreign assistance package that was approved on Tuesday includes $17 billion for Israel and $9 billion for the benefit of people suffering in war areas worldwide, including Gaza's Palestinian population.

To "counter communist China," an additional $8 billion has been set aside for friends in the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan.

In response to the vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz expressed gratitude to the leaders of Congress for their "unwavering commitment to Israel's security".

"Israel and the United States fight together in the fight against terrorism, defending democracy and my shared values," he said.

Israel already receives $3.8 billion in military funding annually from the US.

A spokesman for the Chinese government described the military assistance for Taiwan as a "serious violation of the one-China principle" that would "send an incorrect signal to the pro-independence separatist forces" in Taiwan. This was happening over in Asia.

"We urge the US to take practical actions to fulfil its agreement not to support Taiwan independence by not supporting Taiwan in any way," she said.

"Strengthen deterrence against authoritarianism" is how newly elected President of Taiwan, William Lai, put it in his remarks.

Although Beijing sees Taiwan as a province that broke away from China and wants to regain authority over it, Taiwan is an independent island that runs its own affairs.

TikTok ban

A clause in the national security package may potentially result in a statewide ban of TikTok.

TikTok's parent firm, located in China, has nine months to find a US-approved buyer and sell its ownership in the popular social media app, failing which it would shut down nationwide.

According to the legislation, the US president may choose to extend the deadline by an extra ninety days, meaning that the ban might go into force as late as almost a year from now.

Senate in the US authorizes possible TikTok ban

With senators claiming that the Chinese government may use security regulations to force ByteDance to give over data about the app's estimated 170 million US users, the TikTok clause garnered bipartisan backing.

TikTok has said on several occasions that it has not given the Chinese government access to its overseas user data and never will.