After months of delay, the US Senate has now passed the billion-dollar aid package for Ukraine. Now things should move quickly: new US weapons could reach the country this week.
79 yes to 18 no votes: The US Senate also approved the new aid to Ukraine with a large, cross-party majority. After six months of impasse, the US aid package is finally secured. It has a total volume of 61 billion dollars, the equivalent of 57 billion euros.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke of a “unified message from the Senate to the entire world.” America will “always defend democracy in the hour of need,” said Schumer. Immediately after the Senate vote, President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill as soon as it was on his desk this Wednesday.
weapons shipments possibly this week
Biden announced the first new arms deliveries to Ukraine this week. According to the New York Times, this also involves US Army stocks that are already stored in Germany and can be brought to Ukraine by train in a very short time. Pat Ryder, spokesman for the US Department of Defense, had already announced before the Senate vote that primarily anti-aircraft systems and artillery ammunition would initially be delivered.
Asked what the long-awaited US decision meant for the course of the war, former US ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said: “It is definitely not too late for Ukraine. Our failure to provide military aid for six months “, has led to significantly more Ukrainian deaths, including among the civilian population, in view of the massive Russian air strikes,” said Herbst on radio station NPR. But the Ukrainian front largely held.
“From now on, if we maintain support for Ukraine at the level before this delay, Ukraine will win,” Herbst is convinced. “And if the U.S. government has the courage to provide Ukraine with even more extensive weapons, that victory will come sooner.”
Billion package for Israel and the Gaza Strip
The legislative package approved by the US Senate also includes $26 billion in new support for Israel. Here, too, it involves, among other things, anti-aircraft systems and further military aid. Nine billion dollars are earmarked for humanitarian aid, including for the people in the Gaza Strip.
It also includes around $8 billion in support for Taiwan and other US partner countries in the Indo-Pacific; this is about military counterweight to China.
Pressure on TikTok
Another part of the package is a law that is intended to force a change of ownership at TikTok. The China-based Bytedance Group therefore has one year to separate from the short video app. Otherwise it should be banned from American app stores. However, it is unclear whether this plan will hold up in US courts. An earlier threat to ban the drug failed in court in the USA.
Ralf Borchard, ARD Washington, tagesschau, April 24, 2024 6:20 a.m