President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion to fund both humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine through September, he said Thursday, CNBC reported, citing high-ranking officials of the US Presidential Administration.
Biden asks Congress for $33 billion in aid for Ukraine
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 29, ARTSAKHPRESS: The $33 billion includes a request for $20.4 billion in additional security and military assistance for Ukraine, as well as additional money to fund U.S. efforts to bolster European security in cooperation with NATO allies.
The administration said this is intended to equip Kyiv and European partners with additional artillery, armored vehicles and anti-armor and anti-air capabilities, accelerate cyber capabilities and advanced air defense systems, and help clear land mines and improvised explosive devices.
Another portion of the $33 billion is a sum of $8.5 billion to help support the Ukrainian economy.
That total will help fund Ukraine’s government, support food, energy and health care services for the Ukrainian people, and counter Russian disinformation and propaganda narratives, Biden said.
Part of it is also intended to support small and medium-sized agricultural businesses during the fall harvest and for natural gas purchases.
Another $3 billion will help provide more traditional humanitarian assistance in the form of wheat and other commodities to people outside Ukraine who have been hurt by the dramatic rise in the price of food caused by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ships that would otherwise be exporting millions of metric tons of grain around the world.
The supplemental budget request to Congress is expected to win broad support among Republicans and Democrats, even as it pushes the total American expenditure in Ukraine past $36 billion in just nine months.
The other part of Biden’s package Thursday is a broad set of proposals to Congress to change current laws to make it easier for the Treasury and State departments to follow through on the hundreds of individual sanctions that have been imposed on Russian oligarchs, companies and government officials since the start of the war.
Under U.S. federal law, in order to sell off seized assets, prosecutors must first show that they are the proceeds of a crime. Currently, being a sanctioned Russian oligarch isn’t a crime.
Legal scholars have noted that without a crime, oligarchs could sue for the return of their property and would stand a good chance of winning in court. Under Biden’s proposal, Congress would create a new federal offense of knowingly possessing proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.
