KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian and Western leaders on Sunday welcomed a desperately needed aid package approved by the US House of Representatives, as the Kremlin warned that passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine and cause more deaths.
Ukrainian leaders and analysts say the long-awaited $61 billion military aid package – including $13.8 billion for Ukraine to buy weapons – will help slow Russia’s incremental gains in the third year of the war – but that it will probably take more for Kiev to regain the offensive.
The House quickly approved $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and other US allies in a rare Saturday session, as Democrats and Republicans united after months of far-right resistance over renewed American support to repel the invasion on a large scale in Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who warned that his country would lose the war without US funding, said he was grateful for US lawmakers’ decision.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Zelenskyy said the aid package would “send the Kremlin a powerful signal that (Ukraine) will not be the second Afghanistan.”
Zelenskyy told NBC that aid “has to end in tangible weapons systems,” highlighting that Ukraine would prioritize long-range weapons and air defense. large-scale offensive”, for which Ukrainian forces are preparing.
The aid package will go to the US Senate, which could approve it as early as Tuesday. US President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
It could still be weeks before it reaches the front lines, where it is desperately needed.
Responding to a question about the timelines for Ukraine’s continued need for such aid packages, the Ukrainian president drew attention to previous delays in promised support. “It depends on when we actually put weapons on the ground,” Zelenskyy told NBC.
“The decision to supply F-16 fighters to Ukraine was made a year ago,” he said. “A year has passed. We still don’t have the jets in Ukraine.”
“With this we can stop (Russian troops) and reduce our losses,” said infantryman Oleksandr. He has been fighting on the outskirts of Avdiivka, a town in the Donetsk region that Ukraine lost to Russia in February after months of intense fighting.
Munitions shortages linked to aid delays over the past six months have led Ukrainian military commanders to ration bombs, a disadvantage that Russia has taken advantage of this year – seizing the town of Avdiivka and currently advancing slowly towards the town of Chasiv Yar, also in Donetsk.
“The Russians come at us in waves – we are exhausted, we have to abandon our positions. This is repeated many times,” Oleksandr told the Associated Press. He did not provide his full name for security reasons. “Not having enough ammunition means we cannot cover the area it is our responsibility to maintain when they attack us.”
In Kiev, many hailed the U.S. vote as good news after a difficult period that has seen Russia make gains along the front line and intensify attacks on Ukraine’s energy system and other infrastructure.
“I heard our president say on the record that we could lose the war without this help. Thank you very much and yesterday was a great event,” said Kateryna Ruda, 43 years old.
Tatyana Ryavchenuk, wife of a Ukrainian soldier, noted the need for more weapons, lamenting that soldiers “have nothing to protect us.”
“They need weapons, they need equipment, they need them. We always need help. Because without help, our enemy can advance further and could be in the center of our city,” said the 26-year-old.
Other Western leaders, who have struggled to find ways to fill the gap left by stagnant U.S. military aid, also praised the aid package.
“Ukraine is using weapons supplied by NATO Allies to destroy Russian combat capabilities. This makes us all safer in Europe & North America,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg posted on X.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that “Ukraine deserves all the support it can get against Russia.”
His statement was echoed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called it “a strong signal in these times”.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk thanked House Speaker Mike Johnson while noting the delay in Congress. “Better late than too late. And I hope it’s not too late for Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday classified the approval of aid to Ukraine as “expected and predictable”.
The decision “will make the United States of America richer, ruin Ukraine even more and result in the death of even more Ukrainians, because of the Kiev regime,” said Peskov, quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
“The new aid package will not save, but on the contrary, will kill thousands and thousands of people, prolong the conflict and bring even more suffering and devastation,” said Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian Duma’s International Affairs Committee. wrote on Telegram.
Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said the logistics of getting U.S. assistance to the front lines would mean that “Ukrainian forces could suffer additional setbacks in the coming weeks as they wait for U.S. security assistance.” US that will allow Ukraine to stabilize the front.”
“But they will likely be able to mitigate the current Russian offensive, assuming that resumption of US assistance arrives promptly,” he said in his latest assessment of the conflict.
Olexiy Haran, professor of comparative politics at the Academy of Kiev-Mohlya National University, said Ukraine was grateful for help from the US and other Western countries, “but the problem is, frankly, that it is too late and not enough.” .
“This is the third year of war and we still have no aviation, new aviation. We don’t have enough missiles, so we can’t close the skies. Furthermore, recently we didn’t even have artillery shells,” he said.
“That’s why the situation was very, very difficult and the Russians took advantage of it to start their counteroffensive, or offensive. So that’s why it’s so important to us. And definitely, if we had received it half a year earlier, we would have saved the lives of many Ukrainians, including civilians.”
Matthew Savill, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the aid, while welcome, “can probably only help stabilize the Ukrainian position for this year and begin preparations for operations in 2025.”
“The predictability of funding through 2024 and into 2025 will help Ukrainians plan for defense this year, especially if European munitions supplies also come to fruition, but more planning and funding will be needed for 2025, and we will have US elections by then. ,” he said.
On the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its troops had taken control of the village of Bohdanivka in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on the announcement.
One person was killed and four others were injured in Russian shelling in Ukrainsk, according to the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region.
Two suspects were detained on Sunday after two Ukrainian soldiers killed a police officer at a checkpoint in the country’s Vinnytsia region.
Soldiers opened fire on Maksym Zaretskyi, 20, in the early hours of Saturday morning after he stopped his car for a routine inspection. Zaretskyi’s partner was injured but survived the attack.
The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ivan Vyhovsky, said on Sunday that the suspects – a father and son, aged 52 and 26 – were detained in the Odesa region of Ukraine.
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Elise Morton reported from London. Vasilisa Stepanenko and Jill Lawless contributed to this report from Kiev.
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