(Washington) The elected members of the House of Representatives adopted a new American budget on Wednesday evening which includes a huge envelope of nearly 14 billion dollars for the Ukrainian crisis.
Updated yesterday at 10:46 p.m.
The text, which includes an economic and humanitarian component, but also weapons and ammunition for Kyiv, must now be voted on in the Senate before being promulgated by Joe Biden.
These funds should allow Kyiv to protect its electricity network, fight cyberattacks and equip itself with defensive weapons. The package also includes more than $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid and more than $1 billion to support refugees fleeing Ukraine.
“We will continue to support the courageous Ukrainian people who are fighting for their country,” assured Joe Biden on Twitter.
This envelope also includes more than 6.5 billion dollars for the Pentagon, which will be used in particular for the deployment of troops in the region. Funds are also allocated to finance the response against Moscow, starting with sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
The envelope for Ukraine has been attached to the US federal budget for the year 2022, 1.5 trillion dollars in spending that senators must in turn adopt in the coming days.
“Dangerous time”
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer urged Congress to act “very quickly” on the file. “Ukrainians lack food, clothing, shelter, electricity and medicine,” he said.
Rare fact in a Congress accustomed to political quarrels: Democrats as Republicans support these measures. Many of them spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last weekend, after which the elected officials urged the Biden administration to step up its aid to Kyiv and beef up its response against Moscow.
“The United States and its partners are going through a dangerous period,” assured conservative tenor Mitch McConnell, seeing in this agreement a “decisive step that our national security needs”.
Within the large American federal budget of 1500 billion dollars, more than 15 billion dollars had also been provisioned to fight against the pandemic. But this section had to be removed at the last minute from the final draft due to protests by some Democrats. It will be subject to a separate vote.
At the same time, the elected representatives of the House of Representatives also voted on Wednesday on a ban on importing Russian energy, following in the footsteps of the American president who announced an embargo on these materials on Tuesday by decree. In addition to banning such imports, the congressional bill also requires the United States to encourage Russia’s suspension from the World Trade Organization.