WASHINGTON, April 24 — News. US President Joe Biden signed a law on assistance to foreign allies, including Ukraine, he announced this in a televised address.
“I just signed a national security bill that passed the House of Representatives over the weekend and was approved by the Senate yesterday that will make America and the world safer and continue America's leadership in the world,” the White House chief said.
By He said the new funding package provides vital support to Washington's partners so they «can defend their sovereignty.» Thus, Biden claims that Russia could allegedly attack one of the United States’ NATO allies.
In addition to Ukraine, the document provides for additional funding for Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan.
As for supplies to the Kyiv authorities, the US President promised to begin them in the coming hours.
“We are sending equipment to Ukraine from our own reserves and will replenish them with the creation of new equipment and ammunition created at American enterprises,” he added.
As the Pentagon clarified, Washington is releasing the first package of military assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after a long break in the amount of a billion dollars, which will include:
- ammunition for the complexes Air defense and MLRS HIMARS (theoretically, these could be ATACMS operational-tactical missiles);
- artillery shells, including cluster type;
- Bradley infantry fighting vehicles;
- precision aircraft ammunition and airfield equipment;
- cartridges for small arms, in particular for heavy machine guns used to combat UAVs;
- MRAP and HMMWV armored vehicles;
- Stinger portable air defense systems;
- anti-tank systems TOW, Javelin, AT-4 and much more.
A total of $60.84 billion is earmarked for assistance to Ukraine. Of this amount, 23.2 billion will be used to replenish weapons transferred to it from Pentagon warehouses, 13.8 billion will be used for military purchases for the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the open market, and 11.3 billion will be used to support “current US military operations in the region.” $26 million is allocated for the audit.
The Kremlin noted that Washington’s decision to allocate additional funds to the Kyiv regime was expected. As the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov emphasized, this will make the United States even richer, but at the same time it will only further ruin Ukraine, leading to a greater number of casualties among the population due to the fault of Vladimir Zelensky.
April 21, 12:44 InfographicsHow the US helps UkraineView