Biden set to approve a $33 BILLION war chest for Ukraine to help ‘fight for freedom’
Joe Biden stutters during press conference on Russia
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Mr Biden will ask Congress to approve the package, which includes over $20 billion (£16 billion) for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5 billion (£6.8 billion) in direct economic assistance to the Ukrainian government and $3 billion (£2.4 billion) in humanitarian aid. It is intended to help fund the Ukrainian war effort until September which is the end of the US financial year.
Mr Biden said at The White House on Thursday that the bill was needed to help Ukraine “fight for freedom” but that it “wasn’t cheap”.
He said: “We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom.
“The cost of this fight – it’s not cheap – but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”
Although the United States has ruled out sending its own troops to fight for Ukraine directly, it has been sending weapons along with its European allies.
These have included heavy artillery, anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised what he called “a very important step” by the United States in a video address.
He said: “I am thankful to the American people and personally to President Biden for it.
“I hope that Congress will quickly approve this request for help to our state.”
Mr Biden’s bill will also allow US officials to seize more assets from Russian oligarchs.
They will also be able to give cash from these seizures to Ukraine and enforce the breaking of sanctions even further.
It will also allow the Justice Department to use the strict U.S. racketeering law once deployed against the mafia, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act, to build cases against those who evade sanctions.
Mr Biden is also intending to give prosecutors more time to build cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of the current five.
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The US President also wants to make it a criminal act to knowingly hold money from corrupt dealing with Russia according to a summary of the legislative proposals.
The U.S. has sent $3 billion (£2.4 billion) military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise Ukraine and protect it from fascists in February.
The United States and its European allies have frozen $30 billion (£24 billion) of assets held by oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, the Biden administration has said.
The full package is about a fifth of pre-war Ukrainian annual economic output, while the $20 billion (£16 billion) U.S. military assistance alone is about a third of what the Russian military spent overall last year, before the war began
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