Analysis
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The US president on Thursday asked Congress for $33 billion to help Ukraine. A colossal envelope that illustrates Washington’s increasingly offensive approach to the Russian invasion.
Gone are the days when the United States saw Kyiv fall in two days and therefore carefully weighed each package sent to Ukraine, lest the aid and weapons sent end up in Russian hands. Barely a week after his last announcements in this area, Joe Biden communicated on Thursday his desire to mobilize new colossal means to assume the price of a long-term conflict. By early March, $13.6 billion earmarked for Ukraine had already been budgeted. The president this time calls on Congress to validate a new allocation of 33 billion, two thirds of which for military assistance alone, planned for five months of response to the Russian invasion, just in time.
“The cost of this fight is not small. But the price to pay would be even higher if we let it go and capitulate in the face of aggression,” said Biden, saluting the courage of the Ukrainian fighters who “are paying the price with their lives every day”: “Weapons, ammunition and economic support are necessary for their courage and sacrifice to have meaning and so that they can continue to fight this fight.” The rest of the plan is broken down into humanitarian aid (3 billion dollars) and economic support for the Ukrainian government, which said a week ago that it lacked 7 billion dollars each month to meet the costs of the war (8.5 billion). Finally, 500 million are intended to support, on a domestic scale…