The US Senate approved the allocation of $95 billion to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
The U.S. Senate finally passed a bill providing $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for humanitarian aid to Israel and the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. This document is expected to be signed by President Biden soon.
The US Senate has approved a long-awaited aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan totaling $95 billion. 79 senators supported the initiative, and 18 were against it. This was reported by Yeni Şafak with reference to Al Jazeera TV channel.
61 billion dollars of this amount is intended to help Ukraine. Of the funds allocated for Ukraine, 23.2 billion will be used to replace weapons and ammunition delivered to Kiev from Pentagon warehouses, 13.8 billion will be used for military purchases for Ukraine on the open market, and 11.3 billion will be used for "current US military operations in the region." will be directed to support.
It should be noted that earlier we reported that Turkey will deliver 116,000 pieces of 155 mm shells for M107 howitzers to the US Department of Defense to replace the shells supplied by Washington to Ukraine.
The United States is providing $26 billion in aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to support security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.
"I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk. We can then prepare to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine starting this week," President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Reuters reports that as soon as Biden signs the document, Washington will send a $1 billion military aid package to Kiev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the adoption of the document .
Taipei announced that it will discuss with the United States how to properly distribute the funds . China's State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office said it was "opposed" to the island 's inclusion in the aid package.
A similar package passed the Senate in February, but has been on the House agenda for a long time. That all changed when Speaker Mike Johnson, a pro-Trump Republican, suddenly changed his mind earlier this month and proposed splitting the funds into four bills that would be debated separately . It was said that the Ukrainian part of the plan will be provided in the form of loans and not in the form of grants.
Senate Democratic and Republican leaders say the vote signals Congress is back on track.
"This bill is one of the most important actions Congress has taken in a very long time to protect American security and the security of Western democracies," Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the vote.
In addition, the package also included an initiative to ban the social network TikTok in the United States. Lawmakers are proposing to give China's ByteDance a year to sell the social network, or TikTok could be banned in the US.