Biden signs Ukraine aid bill, arms shipments within hours | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Biden signed a bill on Wednesday that includes tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. The shipment of weapons to Ukraine will begin within the next few hours, it said.

The bill includes $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, and $8 billion to counter China’s military might.See more

Biden has already approved a first round of $1 billion in weapons supplies to Ukraine, including vehicles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, additional ammunition for high-mobility rocket artillery systems, 155-millimeter artillery shells, and anti-tank weapons. It includes the TOW and Javelin missiles, as well as other battlefield-ready weapons.

Biden said the U.S. will provide critical support to help U.S. partners protect themselves from threats to their sovereignty, and described Ukraine’s military as a “skilled fighting force with the will to win.” On the other hand, he used former President Trump’s slogan “MAGA (Make America Great Again)” and accused those who opposed aid to Ukraine of being “MAGA Republicans” who pledged allegiance to Trump. did.

President Zelenskiy of Ukraine welcomed the passage of the Ukraine Assistance Bill. “No matter what anyone says, we will get the support we need to continue to protect lives from Russian attack,” he said on X.

Biden will also require ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of short video sharing app TikTok, to sell the app’s U.S. assets within about nine months, and if it does not comply, the app will no longer be available. He also signed a bill banning theSee more

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Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaign of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents ‘ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA’s work was recognized with Deutsche Welle’s “Freedom of Speech Award.” Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA’s “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure” award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists’ “Breaking News” award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.