The U.S. will send an additional $40 billion in support to Ukraine after President Joe Biden signed a bill while traveling in Asia. The money is intended to get Ukraine through September as the Russian invasion approaches its fourth month.
Congress cleared the legislation with bipartisan support earlier in the week to avoid a gap in funding, after the final drawdown of $100 million in previously approved funding occurred Thursday.
The package includes more than $20 billion for the Pentagon to provide weapons, intelligence and training, and nearly $14 billion for the State Department for food aid, refugee assistance and other diplomatic programs.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is contending that Russia should be financially responsible for the destruction it has inflicted during its invasion.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Friday that Russia should be made to pay for every home, school, hospital and business it destroys, and urged allies to seize Russian properties under their jurisdictions and use them to create a fund for the Ukrainian victims of the war.
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Latest developments:
►Ukraine’s ambassador to neighboring Poland says his nation is grateful for the welcome that Poles have given to millions of Ukrainian refugees, but he hopes the European Union will soon release…
