TEHRAN- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine in 2023 bringing the total U.S. assistance to Kyiv to nearly $100 billion.
The aid measure passed by the Democratic-controlled house, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that won Senate approval a day earlier, will now go to U.S. President Joe Biden for signing into law.
Biden is expected to sign the document. The U.S. leader has already said that he intends to approve the new military aid right away paving the way for more weapons to Ukraine next year.
The new military and economic assistance will come on top of the roughly $50 billion the U.S. has already provided Ukraine this year.
Russia says the massive delivery of arms by the U.S. and its Western allies will only drag out the war, prolong the suffering of civilians and not bring about any peace to the region.
America has been Kyiv's staunchest supporter in the war.
Moscow has also accused the U.S. of fighting a proxy war with Russia and that Washington is determined to keep going “to the last Ukrainian”.
It comes on the back of a trip to the U.S. by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he delivered a speech to Congress.
It was the first foreign visit outside of his country since the war erupted in February of this year.
Landing back in Kyiv, Zelensky thanked Congress and the leaders of both U.S. parties. In a post on social media, he said it was "crucial" that Americans are "side-by-side" with Ukrainians "in this struggle."
During the Ukrainian leader’s visit to Washington, Biden also announced $1.85 billion in new military assistance to Kyiv, including the delivery of a Patriot missile battery system, something that Ukraine has been requesting for a long time now.
But Moscow has dismissed the U.S. plans to send Patriot missiles, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the weapon is old and that Moscow’s missile systems would be able to shoot it down.
“The Patriot air defense is outdated. An antidote will always be found … Russia will knock down the Patriot system,” he said. The Kremlin also says it will not stop Russia from achieving its military goals.
U.S. officials have admitted the single Patriot battery that Biden promised Zelensky during their White House meeting will not change the course of the war.
The Russian president has added that “all armed conflicts end through negotiations”, which is not the first time that Moscow has called on Kyiv to sit around the negotiating table. “The sooner this becomes clear to Kyiv, the better,” Putin said.
Kyiv and the Biden administration are wary that retaining U.S. congressional support for military aid may become more complicated when Republicans take a slim majority in the House next year.
Some Republicans oppose the military aid and other lawmakers have called for tighter oversight as not everyone in congress is happy with the financial assistance being delivered.
“The U.S. would be spending five times more than the rest of the world combined to assist Ukraine… this is not our war to fight.” Republican Warren Davidson had warned the House of Representatives.
He has now added "happy to meet elsewhere, but Zelensky should not speak from the U.S. House" after the Ukrainian leader addressed lawmakers in the Chamber.
Among other House Representatives opposed to Zelensky's demands was Matt Gaetz. He said, "American politicians who indulge his requests are unwilling to do the same for our [requests]".
Another, Lauren Boebert said she had not heard "a clear explanation of where the first $50 billion we sent to support [Ukraine's] efforts went" adding she would not support further aid to the country without an audit.
Scrutiny on U.S. support for Ukraine is widely expected to increase when Republicans take control of the House in January. Part of their skepticism comes from traditional conservative concerns about government waste and excessive spending.
“[Republicans] are utterly justified in saying, ‘we want to understand where aid to Ukraine comes in the big picture of American strategy and spending priorities’,” said Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
Some lawmakers such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia did not attend Zelensky’s address to Congress. Others, like Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, did attend but refrained from joining their colleagues in applause during the Ukrainian president’s speech.
When they take over the House next year, Republican leaders are planning more hearings featuring Biden administration officials to provide details about where and how military aid is being spent and have vowed to apply more scrutiny for future requests.
The House minority whip Steve Scalise told reporters after Zelensky’s visit, that he had raised this with the Ukrainian leader. “There’s concern that the money’s going to the places that it’s intended. Having any taxpayer dollars that go anywhere, whether it’s domestically or abroad, deserves scrutiny.”
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy has denounced the Biden administration officials for its unlimited assistance describing it as “a blank cheque”.
Surveys show Americans are becoming more skeptical of the military assistance to Ukraine. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 48 percent of Republicans say the U.S. is going too far.
Critics also argue the U.S. and its allies have not done enough to ensure that billions of dollars in weaponry are not falling into the wrong hands.
This comes as the U.S. the Department of Defense said in a statement it has awarded more military contracts to arms manufacturing companies on Friday, including one of over a billion dollars to Lockheed Martin Corp.
Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin received a Defense Department contract worth $431 million to deliver new High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) which are increasingly being shipped to Ukraine. Separately, Boeing Co (another U.S. arms manufacturer) was awarded a $497 million contract for CH-47F helicopters.
On the other hand, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, in particular Russian energy exports, that have had a dire effect on Europe with many households in the continent witnessing skyrocketing gas and electricity bills that have spearheaded record inflation levels not seen in decades.
The sanctions on Russia have also triggered a cost of living crisis in Europe as well as a global food supply crisis.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has however dismissed the sanctions, telling reporters on Saturday that Russia is capable of taking measures to mitigate the damage from the punitive Western measures.
"Immediate measures are certainly being taken in order to mitigate the damage from sanctions and ensure the unhindered operation of all economic sectors and systems," he noted.
Peskov stressed that Moscow "has every possibility and potential to do that. It was created in advance for such situations, analysis will be required to determine the retaliatory measures that would best serve our interests,"
The Kremlin spokesman also says there were no signs from Zelensky’s meeting with Biden that Ukraine was ready for peace talks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu that Moscow has expressed its readiness to cooperate with all the constructive forces in order to find an early and sustainable solution to the Ukraine war in the interests of peace and stability.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbas republics.
The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was in response to the U.S.-led NATO military alliance’s eastward expansion in Ukraine on Russian borders.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has also said that the Russian Armed Forces are not striking Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being targeted by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians. The Ukrainian government has strongly rejected the Russian account.
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