Wendell Husebø(Breitbart) A.P News elements
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Congress and President Joe Biden on Wednesday after stating that $45 billion worth of aid designated for Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill is not enough support.
Update:
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will provide $1.85 billion in military aid to Ukraine, rolling out funding for a Patriot missile battery as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington for his first known trip out of his country since Russia invaded in February.
The White House announcement came just hours before Zelenskyy landed at Joint Base Andrews, just outside the capital. The package includes $1 billion in weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks, including the Patriot battery for the first time, and $850 million in funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Part of the USAI will be used to fund a satellite communications system, which likely will include the crucial SpaceX Starlink satellite network system owned by Elon Musk.
A.P reported: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid a defiant wartime visit to Washington on Wednesday to thank U.S. leaders and “ordinary Americans” for their support in fighting off Russia’s invasion and pledged there would be “no compromises” in trying to bring an end to the war. President Joe Biden and Congress responded with billions in new assistance and a pledge to help Ukraine pursue a “just peace.”
Biden welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office, saying the U.S. and Ukraine would continue to project a “united defense” as Russia wages a “brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation.” Zelenskyy, on his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February, said he wanted to visit earlier and his visit now showed the “situation is under control, because of your support.”
Congress was weighing whether to pass the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that designates $45 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine. The $45 billion is in addition to the $66 billion lawmakers have already approved of taxpayers’ money for Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Zelensky released a video revealing he will tell Biden and Congress $45 billion is still not enough support.
“We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army. Our people are braver and need more powerful weapons,” he said about the Ukrainian war. “We will pass it on from the boys to the Congress, to the president of the United States. We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough. It is a hint — it is not enough.”
Zelensky’s claim that $45 billion is not enough aid – on top of the already approved $66 billion – comes as the omnibus bill is expected to approve a military budget of about $858 billion, $45 billion more than Biden had requested from taxpayers.
Critics of Ukrainian aid say much of the funds have ended up in the hands of American defense contractors. Others have demanded the previous sums of money approved by Congress should be audited before aid more is given. Still others are concerned the sheer amount of money spent defending Ukraine’s borders is too much.
American taxpayers have given more aid to Ukraine than is sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined. In just a few short months since the Ukrainian war, the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine also surpassed three of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in history.
The New York Times reported Sunday the “[m]ilitary spending next year is on track to reach its highest level in inflation-adjusted terms since the peaks in the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between 2008 and 2011, and the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II — a level that is more than the budgets for the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.