WASHINGTON-
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he would immediately send much-needed weapons to Ukraine as he signed into law a $95 billion war aid measure that also included assistance for Israel, Taiwan and other global hotspots.
The announcement marked the end of the long and painful battle with Republicans in Congress over urgently needed aid for Ukraine, with Biden promising that US arms shipments would begin arriving in Ukraine “in the coming hours.”
“We rose to the moment, we came together and we got it done,” Biden said at an event at the White House to announce the signing of the bill. “Now we have to act quickly, and we are doing so.”
But significant damage has been done to the Biden administration’s effort to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion during the financial stalemate dating back to August, when the Democratic president made his first emergency spending request for aid to Ukraine. Even with a large supply of new weapons and ammunition, Ukraine is unlikely to bounce back immediately after months of setbacks.
Biden immediately approved sending Ukraine $1 billion in military assistance, the first tranche of some $61 billion allocated to Ukraine. The package includes air defense capabilities, artillery shells, armored vehicles and other weapons to shore up Ukrainian forces who have seen morale decline as Russian President Vladimir Putin racked up victory after victory.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has begun using long-range ballistic missiles secretly provided by the United States for the first time, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, US officials confirmed Wednesday. The United States is providing more military tactical missile systems, known as ATACMS, in the new military aid package, according to an official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Still, in the longer term, it remains uncertain whether Ukraine – after months of losses and suffering massive damage to its infrastructure – will be able to make enough progress to maintain American political support before using up the latest influx of money.
“It does no favors to Ukrainians in the Donbass, and certainly not in other parts of the country,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby, referring to the eastern industrial heartland where Ukraine has suffered setbacks. “Mr. Putin believes that he can buy time. So we have to try to recover some of that time.”
Within the measure is a provision that gives TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, nine months to sell it or face a national ban in the United States. The Biden administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have called the social media site a growing national security concern, which ByteDance denies.
The bill also includes about $26 billion in aid for Israel and an increase of about $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza suffering as the war between Israel and Hamas continues. Biden said Israel must ensure that humanitarian aid for the Palestinians reaches Gaza “without delay.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed a vote on the supplemental relief package for months as members of his party’s far right, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky threatened to take steps to overthrow him if he was allowed to vote to send more aid to Ukraine. Those threats persist.
Former US President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has complained that European allies have not done enough for Ukraine. While he stopped short of endorsing the supplemental funding package, his tone has changed in recent days, acknowledging that Ukraine’s survival is important to the United States.
Indeed, many European leaders have long been nervous that a second Trump presidency would mean a decline in U.S. support for Ukraine and the NATO military alliance. European anxiety intensified in February when Trump, in a campaign speech, warned NATO allies that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever it wants” to countries that fail to meet their defense spending targets if returns to the White House.
It was a key moment in the debate over Ukraine spending. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg quickly criticized Trump for putting “American and European soldiers at greater risk.” Days later, Biden called Trump’s comments “dangerous” and “un-American” and accused Trump of playing into Putin’s hands.
But in reality, the White House’s maneuvering to secure additional funding for Ukraine began months earlier.
Biden, the day after returning from a whirlwind trip to Tel Aviv following the surprising attack by Hamas militants on October 1. 7 against Israel, he used an unusual prime-time speech to present his proposal for supplemental funding.
At the time, the House was in chaos because the Republican majority had failed to select a speaker to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who had been ousted more than two weeks earlier. McCarthy’s reckoning with the far right of the Republican Party came after he agreed earlier this year to allow levels of federal spending that many on his right flank disagreed with and wanted to overturn.
Far-right Republicans have also strongly opposed sending more money to Ukraine, as the war appears to have no end in sight. In August, Biden requested more than $20 billion to keep aid flowing to Ukraine, but the money was removed from a spending bill that was due to pass, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Washington to make a personal request for continued support from the United States.
In late October, Republicans finally chose Johnson, a low-profile Republican from Louisiana whose thinking on Ukraine was opaque, to be the next speaker. During his congratulatory call to Johnson, Biden urged him to quickly approve aid to Ukraine and began a months-long effort, largely behind the scenes, to bring the issue to a vote.
In private conversations with Johnson, Biden and White House officials weighed in on what was at stake for Europe if Ukraine fell to Russia. Five days after Johnson was formally elected president, national security adviser Jake Sullivan outlined to him the administration’s Ukraine strategy and assured him that accountability measures were in place in Ukraine to track where aid was going, an effort to address a common conservative complaint. .
On explicit orders from Biden, White House officials also avoided directly attacking Johnson over the aid stalemate.
Johnson presented himself to White House officials as a direct and honest player during the negotiations, according to a senior administration official. Biden managed to find common ground with Republicans early in his term to push through a trillion-dollar infrastructure deal, legislation to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry and an expansion of services. federal health care for veterans exposed to toxic smoke from burn pits. And he knew there was a lot of Republican support for more funding for Ukraine.
Biden praised Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying they ultimately “stepped up and did the right thing.”
“History will remember this moment,” Biden said. “For all the talk about how dysfunctional things are in Washington, when you look at the last three years, we’ve seen it time and time again on the critical issues. In fact, we have come together.”
At frustrating moments during negotiations, Biden urged his aides to “keep talking, keep working,” according to the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
So they did it. In a daily meeting convened by White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, the president’s top advisers, seated around a large oval table in Zients’ office, would brainstorm possible ways to better defend the dire situation in Ukraine. in the absence of help.
Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and legislative affairs director Shuwanza Goff were in regular contact with Johnson. Goff and Johnson’s senior staff also spoke frequently as a deal emerged.
The White House also sought to accommodate Johnson and his various questions. For example, administration officials, at the speaker’s request, briefed the Representatives. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-Texas, two conservatives who were persistent antagonists of Johnson.
Meanwhile, senior Biden officials frequently updated McConnell as well as top Republican caucus leaders, including representatives. Michael McCaul and Mike Turner.
In public, the administration deployed an intelligence downgrade strategy that demonstrated Russia’s efforts to strengthen ties with U.S. adversaries China, North Korea and Iran to strengthen Moscow’s defense industrial complex and circumvent U.S. and European sanctions. .
The $61 billion may help qualify Ukrainian forces, but kyiv will need much more for a fight that could last years, military experts say.
Realistic goals in the coming months for Ukraine (and its allies) include avoiding the loss of major cities, slowing Russia’s push and bringing additional weaponry to kyiv that could help them go on the offensive in 2025, said Bradley Bowman, a specialist in defense strategy and policy. Analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“In our microwave culture, we tend to want immediate results,” Bowman said. “And sometimes things are difficult and you can’t get immediate results. “I think Ukraine’s success is not guaranteed, but Russia’s success is if we stop supporting Ukraine.”
Biden regretted that the package did not include money to strengthen US border security. The White House had proposed including provisions in the package that he said would have helped stem the tide of immigrants and asylum seekers coming to the United States.
Republicans, however, rejected the proposal at the request of Trump, who did not want to give victory to Biden on an issue that has been a burden for the Democratic administration.
“It should have been included in this bill,” Biden said. “I am determined to do it for the American people.”
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Haleluya Hadero, Mary Clare Jalonick and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.