61 billion of this amount is intended to help Ukraine.
Now, for this decision to come into force, only the signature of President Joe Biden is needed. According to world agencies, Biden, immediately following the vote in the Senate, promised to sign the documents immediately, following which the first batch of military aid to Ukraine will be delivered within a few days.
The package includes four bills: aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and the fourth proposal contains a potential ban on TikTok and a REPO law that would greenlight the sale of seized Russian assets.
The United States is allocating $26 billion to aid Israel and humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to ensure security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.
Before the start of the meeting, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for foreign aid to be approved as quickly as possible.
“It’s time to finish the job to help our friends overseas,” he said. – Let’s not delay or delay this. Let’s not make our friends around the world wait another minute.”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky immediately thanked the American senators for their decision.
“This vote strengthens America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world,” Zelensky said in a statement.
“I also appreciate President Biden’s support and look forward to quickly signing the bill and delivering the next military aid package. […] Ukraine’s long-range weapons, artillery and air defense are extremely important tools for the speedy restoration of a just world,” reads the statement of the President of Ukraine.
How the discussion went
The procedural vote, which was scheduled for 13:00 Washington time (17:00 GMT), was briefly postponed due to the position of Republicans – they complained that they might not propose amendments to the bill.
Senators Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Mike Lee of Utah accused Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of “pushing through his version of the bill with minimal debate.”
Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, agreed.
He said he wanted to propose two amendments, one of which was to lift the ban on money for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which Israel has accused of collaborating with Hamas.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that it was necessary to “see real progress” before restoring funding to UNRWA.
“Members of the House may or may not agree with me on these issues, but they must be put to a vote,” Sanders said.
The majority of senators rejected these proposals, following which the discussion continued and the issue was put to a vote.
The first batch for Ukraine is already ready
In February, a similar aid package easily passed the upper house – senators voted 70 votes to 29. However, then the bill did not contain a provision on the possible sale of the popular application TikTok, which is in the current text: TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese ByteDance, is prescribed within nine months sell the media platform – or it will be banned in the United States.
The president can increase this period to a year, but in any case, the ban will not take effect before the presidential elections.
US President Joe Biden has previously said that he will sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk following approval by the Senate.
The Ukraine support bill includes spending totaling $60.84 billion.
As Politico and the Washington Post wrote this week, the Pentagon has prepared a large shipment of military aid to Ukraine in advance, so that once the budget is finalized, it will take “less than a week” to deliver the first batch of ammunition to the Ukrainian army.
Also on Tuesday, Western media reported, citing sources, that the first batch of aid to Kyiv from the new package is estimated at $1 billion.
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2024-04-24 09:43:34
