Volodymyr Zelensky praises $61 billion US military aid to Ukraine after House of Representatives finally approves package after months of delays

• The relief package faced months of delays by hardline Republicans
• They said the US had no role in financing foreign wars
• But Zelenskiy praised the new aid package, saying it was a much-needed lifeline

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised a $61 billion military aid package that was finally passed by the US House of Representatives after months of delays.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved long-delayed military aid to Ukraine on Saturday in a rare show of bipartisan unity, while also shoring up defenses of Israel and Taiwan and threatening to ban China-owned TikTok.

The four bills in the $95 billion package, which included the $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, were overwhelmingly approved in quick succession, although they threaten the future of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. leaving some doubt as he tries to fend off the fury of the far right. opponents.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the legislation would “provide critical support to Israel and Ukraine; providing much-needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and other locations… and strengthening security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”

He praised lawmakers who came together across party lines “to answer the call of history.”

Zelensky welcomed the $61 billion earmarked for his country, saying the military and economic aid would “save thousands and thousands of lives.”

Not surprisingly, Russia took the opposite position.

“It will further enrich the United States of America and further ruin Ukraine by killing even more Ukrainians because of the regime in Kiev,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state news agency TASS reported.

The US Senate will consider the bill on Tuesday. Senate approval would then send the measure to Biden for his signature.

The bills are the result of months of bitter negotiations, pressure from US allies and repeated requests for help from Zelensky.

The United States has been Ukraine’s main military backer in its war against Russia, but Congress has not approved large-scale funding for its ally in nearly a year and a half, largely due to bickering between the aisles.

Biden and Democratic lawmakers in Congress have been pushing for a major new arms package for Ukraine for months.

But Republicans, influenced by the party’s presidential candidate Donald Trump, are reluctant to provide Kiev with funding for the protracted conflict.

Financing the war has become a point of contention ahead of November’s presidential election, with Biden expected to face Trump again.

After months of hesitation, Johnson finally threw his support behind the aid package for Ukraine.

“To put it bluntly, I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than to American guys,” Johnson said.

The handful of far-right Republicans who had threatened to impeach Johnson if he pushed for the vote in Ukraine appeared to back off on Saturday, at least temporarily.

“I’m actually letting my colleagues go home and hear from their constituents” about their anger over the vote, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on CNN.

The Ukrainian bill also allows Biden to seize and sell Russian assets and provide the money to Ukraine to finance its reconstruction, a move embraced by other G7 countries.

More than $6 billion in frozen assets are in US banks, and under the recently passed REPO Act, Biden will be allowed to confiscate them and transfer them to a special fund for Ukraine.

The $6 billion comes in the form of Russian government foreign exchange reserves, which have been invested over a number of years to keep the ruble stable.

In total, Russia has invested $300 billion in foreign exchange, almost all of which has been frozen by Western governments. A large part of it is located in Germany, France and Belgium.