The vast American plan for military and economic assistance to Ukraine awaits the signature of Joe Biden on Wednesday, the day after its adoption after months of negotiations in the United States, the American president promising to send weapons to kyiv as soon as this week.
Aid to Ukraine of $61 billion received broad support in the US Senate on Tuesday. Mr. Biden immediately announced that he was going to promulgate the text, adopted a few days earlier in the House of Representatives, the other component of the American Congress.
“I will sign this bill and address the American people as soon as it arrives on my desk” on Wednesday “so that we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week,” he said. declared.
Congress responded to “the call of history” with this law which aims to “strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership,” he added in a press release. the White House.
On social media, his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful to the United States Senate for approving vital aid for Ukraine.”
The Kremlin, for its part, has minimized its scope. “All new batches of weapons are surely already ready and will not change the dynamics on the front,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
These funds are the result of months of extremely acrimonious negotiations, the comings and goings of the Ukrainian president in Washington, and pressure from allies around the world.
They even cost a Republican leader his job.
“Ammunition” rather than “our boys”
American military assistance, interrupted for several weeks, should resume almost immediately – within “the coming days”, the Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The adoption of this aid plan is a relief for the Ukrainian army, faced with a shortage of new recruits and ammunition, in the face of constant pressure from Russian troops in the east.
The United States is kyiv’s main military supporter, but Congress had not passed a major package for its ally in nearly a year and a half — mainly due to partisan wrangling.
The American president and the Democratic Party remained in favor of this aid, presented as an investment in the security of the United States in the face, according to them, of Russia’s aggressive aims.
The Republicans, led by Donald Trump, have become increasingly reluctant, and the conservative boss of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has long blocked the text.
The Republican leader in Congress ended up supporting the resumption of military and economic aid, with this justification: “I would rather send munitions to Ukraine than send our boys to fight.”
This aid plan also authorizes President Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets to be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. An idea that is gaining ground with other G7 countries.
A large part of the envelope will also be used to replenish the stocks of the American army and will return to arms factories in the United States.
The Ukrainian army struck energy sites in western Russia with drones on Wednesday, a source in the Ukrainian defense sector told AFP, confirming Russian information and saying it was were “absolutely legitimate targets”.
Ukrainian drones struck “two oil depots” in the Smolensk region, some 400 kilometers from the borders, during this operation organized by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), the source said.
These new attacks took place against a backdrop of tensions in the strategic field with Washington, which, according to media reports, criticized kyiv’s strikes on energy sites located on Russian soil and called for an end to them.