Ukrainian soldiers carry shells to fire on Russian positions on the front line near the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region March 25. The Ukrainian troops, under-equipped and outnumbered, struggled to stop the Russian advance.
Efrem Lukatski/AP
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Ukrainian soldiers carry shells to fire on Russian positions on the front line near the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region March 25. The Ukrainian troops, under-equipped and outnumbered, struggled to stop the Russian advance.
Efrem Lukatski/AP
kyiv, Ukraine — Rep. Oleksandra Ustinova, who heads the Ukrainian parliament’s arms committee, has spent months urging congressional holdouts to stop blocking nearly $61 billion in military and economic aid to her country.
She repeatedly warned them that Russian troops were advancing because Ukrainian soldiers lacked ammunition and weapons.
Ustinova was desperate that no one would listen to her. Then, on Saturday, the House of Representatives finally approved the aid plan. The bill provides nearly $61 billion in aid, including nearly $14 billion to help Ukraine purchase advanced weapons systems and defense equipment and $13.7 billion for purchase of American defense systems for Ukraine.
“I was literally crying,” she said. “You can’t imagine how important this is to us. We had nothing to shoot for. Now there’s a green light at the end of the hall.”
The vote came after Russian airstrikes hit several Ukrainian cities, killing dozens. The aid package is expected to pass the Senate. President Biden said the White House would move quickly to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to “meet urgent battlefield needs.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was firing 10 times more artillery shells than Ukraine could and warned Ukraine could lose the war if the House did not approve the program help.
Ukrainians applaud House vote, which will provide new supplies of artillery shells and air defense missiles and also support Ukraine’s economy, which is suffering severely after more than two years of large-scale attacks of Russia against the country. But Ukraine’s relief at being able to fight to live another day also mixes with its worry about future U.S. aid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters just after the House voted to approve $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and to other US allies at the Capitol on Saturday.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters just after the House voted to approve $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and to other US allies at the Capitol on Saturday.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
In a video address Saturday, Zelensky thanked House Speaker Mike Johnson and called on the United States to continue supporting Ukraine in the future.
“America showed its leadership from the first days of the war,” he said. “It is this type of American leadership that is vital to the preservation of a rules-based international order.”
Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders often warn that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 threatens Europe and the West, and that Ukrainian soldiers alone cannot hold back the Russians.
Valentyn Romaniuk, a 22-year-old soldier in Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade, saw this firsthand on the Eastern Front Line, where his unit was under-equipped with weapons.
He lost his leg while fighting and is now learning to walk thanks to a prosthesis.
“Delays in helping our partners not only cost lives, they also cost limbs,” Romaniuk says, sitting on a park bench in kyiv. “With all the deaths and injuries, that leaves far fewer troops to defend Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian military has cited delays in military funding to justify ammunition rationing. While Ukraine waited, its troops were forced to withdraw from Avdiivka, a strategic eastern town that Ukrainian forces had been defending against Russian occupation for a decade. Emboldened, Russian forces have intensified their offensives on several points in eastern Ukraine.
Another soldier, Anton Tarasov, says a new infusion of military aid “is going to be a big spiritual push, a big emotional push.” Because the Russians, they were so encouraged all this time. And all their propaganda was saying (to the Ukrainians), “America has abandoned you, it’s time to give up, otherwise we will kill you all.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that while the aid package would make America richer, it would further ruin Ukraine and lead to even more Ukrainian deaths. Peskov also condemned provisions in the bill that could allow the United States to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians say they were besieged by Russian attacks as they awaited the House vote.
“So many people are dying,” says Khrystyna Naridzhenyan, 25, as she calls a customer at her family’s grocery store in kyiv. “If there’s an opportunity to stop this, we’re waiting for it.”
His family’s grocery store was badly damaged by shrapnel from recent Russian missile attacks. Above the store is a yellow banner with the inscription: “We are working”.
She says the grocery store could have been spared if Ukraine had had stronger air defense.
Ukraine does not have enough air defense systems to intercept all Russian missiles and drones. And those who succeed are mortal.
The strikes also caused enormous damage to infrastructure. The World Bank and the European Commission estimate that it will cost nearly $500 billion to repair and rebuild Ukraine. The bill continues to rise because the attacks continue to occur.
Valentyna Maksymenko, 64, also works at the grocery store. She says Ukrainians will continue to fight, even if American support wanes.
“But it will be very difficult for us,” she said. “Many of us will be destroyed.”
In a Kiev park, Serhii Bykon, a 44-year-old IT worker, watches his young son run in a playground rebuilt after a Russian attack.
He believes the US aid package should give Ukraine a fighting chance – for now. But he is not counting on American aid in the future, especially in the event of a change of administration.
“There’s so much uncertainty,” he says. “That’s why we can’t feel safe.”
NPR’s Philip Reeves contributed reporting
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