President Joe Biden asked the US Congress for an additional 33 billion US dollars to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion, a signal that the US is prepared to mount a robust, long-term campaign to bolster Kyiv and weaken Moscow as the bloody war enters its third month with no sign of abating.
Mr Biden’s latest proposal, which the White House said was expected to support Ukraine’s needs for five months, has more than 20 billion US dollars in military assistance for Kyiv and for shoring up defences in nearby countries.
There is also 8.5 billion US dollars in economic aid to help keep Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government functioning and three billion US dollars for food and humanitarian programs to help civilians, including the more than five million refugees created by the war.
The assistance package, which now heads to Congress for consideration, would be more than twice as large as an initial 13.6 billion US dollars of defence and economic aid for Ukraine and Western allies that Congress enacted last month and is now almost exhausted.
It was meant to signify that the US is not tiring of helping to stave off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to expand his nation’s control of its neighbour, and perhaps beyond.
“The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly,” Mr Biden said.
“It’s critical this funding gets approved and as quickly as possible.”
The request comes with the fighting, now in its ninth week, sharpening in eastern and southern parts of the country and international tensions growing as Russia cuts off gas supplies to two Nato allies, Poland and Bulgaria.
There is wide, bipartisan support in Congress for giving Ukraine all the assistance it needs to fight the Russians, and its eventual approval seems certain.
But Mr Biden and congressional Democrats also want lawmakers to approve billions more to battle the pandemic, and that along with a Republican push to entangle the measure with an extension of some Trump-era immigration restrictions leaves the proposal’s pathway to enactment unclear.
In an accompanying letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr Biden also asked politicians to include an additional 22.5 billion US dollars for vaccines, treatments, testing and aid to other countries in continuing efforts to contain Covid-19.
But that figure, which Mr Biden also requested last month, seems aspirational at best.
In a compromise with Republicans, Senate Democrats have already agreed to pare that figure to 10 billion US dollars, and reviving the higher amount would be at best an uphill fight.
As if acknowledging the political problems the pandemic response is encountering, Mr Biden’s letter to Ms Pelosi said: “I urge the Congress to include this much needed” pandemic spending in the Ukraine package.
That wording seemed to suggest that separating the two initiatives, if needed to speed the Ukraine money, might be palatable to the White House.
Mr Biden was also asking Congress on Thursday for new powers to seize and repurpose the assets of Russian oligarchs.
He wants politicians to make it a criminal offense for a person to “knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government”, double the statute of limitations for foreign money laundering offenses to 10 years, and expand the definition of “racketeering” under U.S. law to include efforts to evade sanctions.
Mr Biden will also ask Congress to allow the federal government use the proceeds from selling the seized assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs to help the people of Ukraine.
