After months of negotiations and pressure, the United States House of Representatives yesterday gave the green light to mostly military aid to Ukraine for 61 billion dollars, to Israel for 26 and to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region for 8 with 311 votes in favor and 112 against. A large majority bipartisan which seemed impossible to achieve before the Iranian retaliation against Israel.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the decision, stressing that the approved packages “will provide critical support to Israel and Ukraine; they will provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and elsewhere… and strengthen security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
Biden praised lawmakers who came together across party lines “to answer the call of history.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj also celebrated the House’s green light for aid, claiming that it “will prevent the war from spreading, will save thousands and thousands of lives and will help both our nations become stronger”. “We hope the bills will be supported by the Senate and sent for President Biden’s signature. Thank you, America!”, concluded the leader of Kiev on X.
The need to move “rapidly” was underlined last week by the director of the CIA, Bill Burns, according to whom without further aid Ukraine would run the risk of losing the war against Russia by the end of this year, therefore precisely coinciding with the presidential elections in the United States.
The appropriations will also be voted on by the Senate perhaps as early as April 23 as announced by the Democratic leader of the House Chuck Schumer. After that, the Pentagon could send the first military aid to Ukraine within a few days from storage sites in the United States and Europe which also contain artillery ammunition and anti-aircraft missiles.
Moscow’s reaction is harsh, according to which the new aid “will worsen the global crisis”, as accused by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The approved package “will further enrich the United States and ruin Ukraine even more, killing even more Ukrainians because of the Kiev regime,” echoed Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The latest US delivery to Kiev was rushed on April 10 to deliver a $138 million package to enable essential repairs and the procurement of spare parts needed for the Hawk anti-aircraft missile systems.
According to what Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder told Politico, the United States is considering the possibility of sending additional military advisors to its embassy in Kiev who would not have a combat role but rather an advisory role to the Ukrainian government and armed forces.
In recent days, new military aid to Kiev has also been allocated or provided by European nations. Denmark announced the allocation of a new package of 2.2 billion crowns (about 295 million euros) for the development of the maritime potential of Ukrainian forces, drones and missile spare parts in cooperation with the Netherlands and the Czech Republic .
Lithuania, which has so far provided aid to Kiev amounting to over 600 million euros, in recent days delivered a disassembled L-39ZA training aircraft to Ukraine and on 6 April announced the transfer to Kiev of some M577 tracked vehicles, command post version of the M113, of the approximately 180 supplied to the Lithuanian army acquired second-hand from Germany in 2015.
Germany will send an additional Patriot air defense system to Kiev to replace the large losses suffered by the weapons systems of this type supplied to Kiev so far by the United States and Germany.
On April 14, Zelensky announced negotiations with Germany to secure an additional Iris-T air defense system and additional missiles for the systems already supplied. In recent days at least one IRIS-T launcher had been destroyed by the Russians. It is not clear whether Patriot and IRIS T will only be supplied with individual launchers or new complete batteries. On 9 April, Berlin announced the forthcoming supply of another 20 Marder 1A combat crawlers (100 already delivered) by Rheinmetall, vehicles which belonged to the German army and were modernized before delivery to Kiev.
On April 12, the Dutch government ratified an agreement to provide a new economic aid package worth 1.4 billion euros, of which one billion will go towards the purchase of weapons.
On April 6, The Hague assured that it will supply 24 F-16 fighters to Kiev and the first deliveries are expected to begin this year. Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren said this: “in total, we will transfer 24 F-16 fighters which will be transferred to Ukraine as soon as everything is ready. The timing depends greatly on the training of Ukrainian pilots and technical personnel, as well as, obviously, on the infrastructure.”
It is also worth mentioning the “collection” promoted by the Czech Republic in which around fifteen nations joined to purchase one million 155, 122 and 152 mm artillery shells and 122 mm Grad rockets on non-European markets at an average price of 2,500 dollars each to be delivered by June.
A good deal especially for Turkey which will get rid of mostly very old ammunition seized from the Kurdish militias in northern Syria and for South Africa which will sell the stocks of ammunition seized during the operations conducted by Pretoria’s forces in Angola in the 1970s and 1980s against pro-Soviet government forces armed by the USSR. In this case we are talking about ammunition produced at least 50/60 years ago and which expired a few decades ago, the use of which could be difficult if not dangerous for the Ukrainian artillerymen themselves.
Photo: US DoD, Diehl Defense, Ukrainian Presidency. Telegram and Bundeswher
Tags: Chamber releases billion military aid Ukraine Israel Taiwan Defense Analysis
