Joe Biden asks Congress for $33 billion ‘to help Ukraine defend itself’

Joe Biden asks Congress for 33 billion to help Ukraine

US President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday April 28 for a $33 billion budget extension intended mainly to deliver more military aid to kyiv.

The United States cannot afford to remain passive in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, Joe Biden told the US Congress to justify this $33 billion extension. Of this total, 20 billion must go to the supply of armaments, nearly seven times more than the quantities of arms and ammunition already supplied to Ukraine since the outbreak of the Russian invasion on February 24.

kyiv has already received 10 anti-tank weapons for each Russian tank, boasted the American president during his speech at the White House. After being confined to weapons seen as defensive, Washington is now sending artillery, helicopters and drones to the Ukrainian army, whose soldiers are trained in the use of these weapons in the United States or in third countries before returning to the front. .

United States ” do not attack Russia, nevertheless assured Joe Biden; they ” help Ukraine defend itself ” It front of ” atrocities and aggression » Russian. The Kremlin had earlier warned of arms shipments to Ukraine that ” threaten the security » European.

The tenant of the White House also castigated Thursday the threats “ irresponsible by Vladimir Putin of a possible recourse to nuclear weapons, seeing in it “the feeling of despair felt by Russia confronted with its miserable failure with regard to its initial objectives”.

The US administration also wants to increase the pressure on the Russian president and his entourage by offering to liquidate the assets ” kleptocratic “seized from Russian oligarchs and to transfer the proceeds to kyiv” to compensate for the damage caused by Russian aggression “, said the White House in a press release.

These assets seized amount to date, for the countries of the European Union (EU) alone, to more than 30 billion dollars in Russian assets, including nearly 7 billion in luxury goods belonging to the oligarchs. The United States, on the other hand, has sanctioned and blocked ships and planes worth more than a billion, as well as froze hundreds of millions of dollars of assets of Russian elites in American accounts “.

And, this month, Spain granted a US request to seize a superyacht worth $90 million owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

These punitive measures should not weaken. The White House promised this Thursday to continue to ” crack down “against maneuvers” avoidance of sanctions by strengthening American capacities for investigation and prosecution of oligarchs tempted to evade it.

(With AFP)

rf-5-general