US Congress approves $60 billion aid to Ukraine

The far-right Republicans were against further aid package to Ukraine, though they were only ready to give it to Israel. But House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson broke through the deadlock and passed a bipartisan bill which provides $60 billion aid to Ukraine and over $30 billion to Israel. It was a $95 billion aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The extreme Republican fringe is angry with Johnson, who is a Republican as Republicans control the House of Representatives. Responding to the US aid to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the US wants Ukraine to “fight to the last Ukrainian.” And the US also wants Russian territory and civilians to be attacked.

But she pointed out that this would end in a disaster for the US. Even as it had lost the wars in Vietnam in the 1970s and in Afghanistan in this century, it will lose the war in Ukraine as well. She said, “Washington’s deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States such as Vietnam and Afghanistan.”

Americans are very clear that they do not send their troops, or that of NATO allies, into Ukraine. House Speaker Johnson told reporters that it is better to send bullets rather than your own men into a battlefield. He was explaining the rationale of the Ukrainian aid package which he had enabled the House of Representatives to pass, and he angered the extreme Republicans in the bargain. Some of the angry Republicans have vowed that they will unseat Johnson from the Speaker’s post.

The US’ Ukrainian package is for a five-year period, and it would seem that it could be inadequate. US spy agency CIA’s director William Burns said that the US military aid is vital for Ukraine to remain in the battlefield. If America did not give Ukraine the arms, then Ukraine will lose the war, according to Burns. But the military aid will only help them to stand up till the end of the year. The US package for Ukraine is then only a temporary reprieve.

The Russians have now gained the confidence that they can hold off Ukraine, and they can also continue with the fight without too much stress. The Russians hold 18 per cent of Ukrainian territory. And that gives the Russians a big advantage, both militarily and psychologically. The Ukrainians continue to fight on, and holding Russia though the fortunes of war have been fluctuating in the last two years ever since Russian launched the invasion in February, 2022.

Initially, Ukraine has fended off the attack on its capital Kyiv, with the Russian armoured columns and tanks stuck in snow, unable to move forward or turn around. It was then that the Russians shifted the theatre of war to the east, where Russia had a strong foothold, apart from its occupation of Crimea. The Ukrainians had initially repelled the Russian advance in the east, and they had even pushed the Russians back. But the Russians recouped and they are pressing forward into Ukraine from the eastern end.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been making desperate pleas to the Americans and the Europeans that Ukraine desperately needs military aid in the form of fighter planes and missiles. NATO had recently recognised that there is need for military aid to be sent to Ukraine immediately, and the NATO foreign ministers had approved the idea. NATO in consultation with the US has to decide the course of action. For Russia a protracted war with Ukraine is advantageous, but for Ukraine it becomes a matter of life and death.