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      Approval of $61bn aid from US shows Ukraine will not be abandoned, says Zelenskiy

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      Ukraine’s president has said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn (£49bn) military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with US television that Saturday’s vote showed Ukraine would not be “a second Afghanistan”, whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pullout in the summer of 2021.The Ukrainian president urged the US Senate to ratify the aid package rapidly and warned that his country was preparing its defences, fearing there could be a large Russian offensive before the fresh supplies reach the frontline.“We really need to get this to the final point. We need to get it approved by the Senate … so that we get some tangible assistance for the soldiers on the frontline as soon as possible, not in another six months,” he said.The Senate is expected to come out of recess on Tuesday to hold its first vote on the package – similar to one it had already voted for in February – with the Joe Biden promising to sign it into law swiftly after it passes Congress.That would end months of wrangling in which House Republicans aligned with Donald Trump had refused to allow Ukraine aid, which was part of a larger package with money for Israel and Taiwan, to be debated in the lower chamber.The US has only been able to commit to $300m of military aid to Ukraine this year, after the budget previously authorised by Congress was spent. This has coincided with a deterioration of the frontline position and the loss of Avdiivka in the eastern Donbas, with a shortage of artillery and other munitions blamed.However, the opposition of Republicans faded after Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel more than a week ago that used similar tactics to Russian attacks on Ukraine. It also underlined – among some rightwing politicians – the need to provide Israel and Ukraine with further support.US officials have signalled that some weapons were in European warehouses, ready to be moved into Ukraine at short notice once Biden decides exactly what to supply in the first round after the overall funding has been approved.Zelenskiy said his immediate priorities were air-defence systems such as the US-made Patriots and long-range missiles such as Atacms, which can travel up to 186 miles (300km) and which the House has called on the Pentagon to provide promptly.“We need long-range weapons to not lose people on the frontline because we have – we have casualties because we cannot reach that far. Our weapons are not that long-range. We need [that] and air defence. Those are our priorities right now,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with NBC News.Ukraine is thought to have only two Patriot anti-missile systems, one of which it uses to defend Kyiv, while the other has been deployed closer to the frontline, in effect leaving large parts of the country exposed.Russia has knocked out several power stations by targeting them with numerous missiles, causing electricity shortages in some parts of Ukraine, including the second city of Kharkiv, home to 1.3 million people. A power station south of Kyiv was destroyed in one night a little more than a week ago in a similar assault.On Sunday, Moscow accused the US of sacrificing Ukrainian lives by forcing the country into a long war that would end in a defeat for both countries.Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said the US wanted Ukraine “to fight to the last Ukrainian” as well as making direct attacks into Russian territory. “Washington’s deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States such as Vietnam and Afghanistan,” she added.Bohdan Krotevych, the chief of staff to Ukraine’s Azov brigade, said he was pleasantly surprised by the result of the House vote and praised the efforts of Zelenskiy in lobbying the US and other countries for military support. But Krotevych warned of a possible response from Moscow in the war. “This doesn’t mean that Russia will not start countermeasures as a reaction,” he said.One expert said he believed the immediate significance of the vote was political, not military. Ben Hodges, a former commanding general of the US army in Europe, said: “The strategic effect will be felt immediately in the Kremlin, where they now realise their plan to wait for us to quit has failed.”Russia might have hoped that Ukraine could be forced to sue for peace, with no US aid forthcoming before November’s presidential election at least. Now the aid should allow Ukraine to “stabilise the front, buy time to grow and rebuild their army and build up their own defence industrial capacity”, Hodges said.Ukrainians out and about on a rainy spring day in Kyiv said they were delighted at the outcome. Pavlo, 44, an IT specialist, said he was very grateful. He said: “The politicians have made the right choice and this shows that the US takes the lead role in world scene; I hope that the aid is already somewhere waiting at the border, ready to be on its way.”Chess-playing Serhii Ivanovich, a retired army colonel, 72, said Ukraine was a peaceful country forced into fighting a war against its larger neighbour. “We have been waiting for this for a very long time. We don’t have enough, we need help. We have the courage, we have the strength but we don’t have the equipment.” More

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      Vote to Resume U.S. Military Aid Is Met With Relief in Ukraine

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      Much-needed munitions like artillery shells could start arriving relatively quickly, but experts say it could take weeks before U.S. assistance has a direct impact on the war.The Ukrainian lieutenant was at a firing position on the eastern front, commanding an artillery unit relying on American-provided M777 howitzers and other big guns, as U.S. lawmakers gathered in Washington to decide if his cannons would be forced to go silent for lack of ammunition.But when the lieutenant returned to his base on Saturday night, he got the news that he and millions of Ukrainians had been praying to hear.“I had just entered the building after a shift change when the guys informed me that the aid package for Ukraine had finally been approved by Congress,” said the lieutenant, who is identified only by his first name, Oleksandr, in line with military protocol. “We hope this aid package will reach us as soon as possible.”The decision by American lawmakers to resume military assistance after months of costly delay was greeted with a collective sigh of relief and an outpouring of gratitude across a battered and bloodied Ukraine. It may have been late in coming, soldiers and civilians said, but American support meant more than bullets and bombs.It offered something equally important: hope.Immediately after the vote passed in Congress, Ukrainian citizens took to social media to offer thanks and express joy, posting American flag memes blending Ukrainian imagery with American symbols like the Statue of Liberty.“I have tears in my eyes,” Anton Gerashchenko, the founder of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, a research group, said in a message. “So much suffering, so much pain. So many lost friends and wonderful people in these horrible years of war. Now there is hope to save more lives of those who are still alive.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      House approves $61bn aid for Ukraine – what we know so far, and what happens next

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      The US House of Representatives has approved $95bn in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.With an overwhelming vote, the $61bn in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as American lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of US support to the war-torn ally. Many Democrats cheered on the House floor and waved Ukraine flags.The speaker, Mike Johnson, who helped marshall the package to passage, said after the vote: “We did our work here, and I think history will judge it well.”What does this new aid package include?The $95bn in total funding includes roughly $61bn for Ukraine with some of the funding going towards replenishing American munitions; $26bn for Israel; $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan; and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Haiti, Sudan and Gaza, though the package also includes a ban until March 2025 on direct US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), an agency providing key assistance to Gaza.In the Ukraine bill, of the $60.7bn, a total of about $23bn would be used by the US to replenish its military stockpiles, opening the door to future US military transfers to Ukraine. Another $14bn would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, in which the Pentagon buys advanced new weapon systems for the Ukrainian military directly from US defence contractors.There is also more than $11bn to fund current US military operations in the region, enhancing the capabilities of the Ukrainian military and fostering intelligence collaboration between Kyiv and Washington; and about $8bn in non-military assistance, such as helping Ukraine’s government continue basic operations, including the payment of salaries and pensions.The package includes several Republican priorities that Democrats endorsed, or at least were willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the US to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organisations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to require the China-based owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the US.What happens next?Passage through the House has cleared away the biggest hurdle to Joe Biden’s funding request, first made in October as Ukraine’s military supplies began to run low.The whole package will now go to the Senate, which could pass it as soon as Tuesday. It is then passed to Biden, the US president, who has promised to sign it immediately.“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” the president said.Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, announced it would begin procedural votes on the package Tuesday, saying: “Our allies across the world have been waiting for this moment.”The Senate Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, as he prepared to overcome objections from his right flank next week, said: “The task before us is urgent. It is once again the Senate’s turn to make history.”What has been the reaction from Ukraine?Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said he was “grateful” to both parties in the House and “personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track”.“Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it. The vital US aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger … Thank you, America!”Sergii Marchenko, the Ukrainian finance minister, pointed to the legislation’s provision for budget support.“This is the extraordinary support we need to maintain financial stability and prevail,” he wrote on X.What has been the reaction from other countries?Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Sunday it will discuss with the US how to use funding for the island.The ministry said it “will coordinate the relevant budget uses with the United States through existing exchange mechanisms, and work hard to strengthen combat readiness capabilities to ensure national security and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.The defence ministry also expressed thanks to the US House for passing the package on Saturday, saying it demonstrated the “rock solid” US support for Taiwan.Taiwan has since 2022 complained of delays in US weapon deliveries, such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers focused on supplying Ukraine.How has Russia responded?The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the approval of security aid to Ukraine would lead to more damage and deaths in the conflict there.The decision “will make the United States of America richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians, the fault of the Kyiv regime”, Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies.Peskov also said that provisions in the legislation allowing the US to confiscate seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to fund reconstruction would tarnish the image of the US, and Russia would enact retaliatory measures.The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the approval of US aid for Ukraine was expected and grounded in “Russophobia”.“We will, of course, be victorious regardless of the blood soaked $61 billion, which will mostly be swallowed up by their insatiable military industrial complex,” wrote Medvedev, who acts as deputy chairman of the security council.Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the approval of aid in the legislation to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan would “deepen crises throughout the world”.“Military assistance to the Kyiv regime is direct sponsorship of terrorist activity,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram. “To Taiwan, it is interference in China’s internal affairs. To Israel, it is a road straight to escalation and an unprecedented rise in tension in the region.”Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, and launched its similarly unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; while Ukraine, an independent and sovereign country, has acted in self-defence.How will the US get weapons swiftly to Ukraine?The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once the military aid package clears the Senate and Biden signs it into law. It has a network of storage sites in the US and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defence components that Kyiv desperately needs.According to a US military official, the US would be able to send certain munitions “almost immediately” to Ukraine. Among the weapons that could go very quickly are the 155 mm rounds and other artillery, along with some air defence munitions. “We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” said Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder.“We have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.”The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has already spent all of the funding Congress had previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44bn worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      in Elections

      Ukraine Aid Divides Republicans, After Trump Tones Down His Resistance

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      His most vocal allies in the House, however, were loudly against providing assistance as Ukraine fights Russia’s invasion.The House vote on Saturday to provide $61 billion in American aid to Ukraine was the clearest sign yet that at least on foreign policy, the Republican Party is not fully aligned with former President Donald J. Trump and his “America First” movement.But more Republicans voted against the aid than for it, showing just how much Mr. Trump’s broad isolationism — and his movement’s antipathy to Ukraine — has divided the G.O.P. in an election year.Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the third time, had actually soft-pedaled his opposition to Ukraine aid in recent days as the dam began to break on the House Republican blockade. He stood by Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who assembled the complicated aid packages for Ukraine, Israel and America’s Asian allies, and against threatened efforts to bring down Mr. Johnson’s speakership and plunge the House back into chaos. And he stayed quiet on Saturday, declining to pressure Republicans to vote no.But few issues have been more central to the former president’s creed than his foreign policy isolationism, his call for Europe to raise military spending in its own backyard, and his foreign policy shift toward Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia.House Speaker Mike Johnson after the House passed the foreign aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.Haiyun Jiang for The New York TimesThough he has in recent days stayed quiet, his most vociferous allies in the House, such as Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, had led efforts to block the aid. Another pro-Trump firebrand, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, jeered Democrats during the vote as they waived Ukrainian flags on the House floor.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Elections

      How the House Voted on Foreign Aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

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      Votes on the Foreign Aid Bills Source: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives The House passed a long-stalled foreign aid package on Saturday that gives funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a majority of lawmakers backing money for American allies across the globe. The package, which now goes to the Senate, is […] More

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      in US Politics

      US House passes bill that could lead to total TikTok ban

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      The House of Representatives voted 360 to 58 on the updated divest-or-ban bill that could lead to the first time ever that the US government has passed a law to shut down an entire social media platform.The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week and Joe Biden has said he will sign the legislation.“This bill protects Americans and especially America’s children from the malign influence of Chinese propaganda on the app TikTok. This app is a spy balloon in Americans’ phones,” said Texas Republican representative Michael McCaul, author of the bill, Bloomberg reports.The updated TikTok bill comes as part of House Republican speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.The passage of the updated version of the bill came after Maria Cantwell, the Senate commerce committee chair, urged the House in March to revise the bill’s details, which now extends TikTok’s parent company ByteDance’s divestment period from six months to a year.In a statement released on Tuesday, Cantwell said: “As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done. I support this updated legislation.”Critics of the popular social media app argue that ByteDance, which is based in China, could collect user data and censor content that is critical of the Chinese government. In March, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, warned in a House intelligence committee hearing that China could use TikTok to influence the US’s 2024 presidential elections.Meanwhile, TikTok has repeatedly said that it has not and would not share US user data with the Chinese government. “TikTok is an independent platform, with its own leadership team, including a CEO based in Singapore, a COO based in the US and a global head of trust and safety based in Ireland,” the company said.In response earlier this week to the House’s then upcoming vote, TikTok wrote a post on social media expressing its displeasure at the bill and the US’s ability to “shutter a platform that contributes $24bn to the US economy, annually”.Following the bill’s passage, TikTok said: “It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” NPR reports.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe president of Signal, an encrypted messaging service and US company, also condemned the bill’s passage, arguing that the data privacy arguments could be extended to other social media companies while pointing to the Senate’s recent passage of the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expands warrantless surveillance powers.In a post on X, Meredith Whittaker said: “This is fucked. Please take a moment to consider what’s happening here. Abuse of surveillance powers is about to be enshrined in US law at the same time that a bill to force TikTok to sell to US buyer or be banned is moving forward, justified in part via ‘data privacy.’”In March, Joe Biden vowed to sign the TikTok bill, saying: “If they pass it. I’ll sign it.” That same month, Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress for more than five hours during which lawmakers grilled TikTok’s Singaporean CEO on China, drugs and teenage mental health. More

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      Columbia Students Who Were Arrested Face Uncertain Consequences

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      Students who camped in tents to protest the war in Gaza, including the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, may be barred from finishing the semester.Many of the more than 100 Columbia University and Barnard College students who were arrested after refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on Thursday woke up to a chilly new reality this week: Columbia said that their IDs would soon stop working, and some of them would not be able to finish the semester.The students who were arrested were released with summonses. The university said all of the 100 or so students involved in the protest had been informed that they were suspended.For some of those students, that means they must vacate their student housing, with just weeks before the semester ends.Yet whatever the consequences, several of the students said in interviews that they were determined to keep protesting Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.They said that after being loaded onto buses with their hands tied, they had sung all the way to police headquarters. Many expressed a renewed belief in their cause, and were glad that the eyes of the nation were on Columbia and Barnard, its sister college.The protests, the arrests and the subsequent disciplinary action came a day after the congressional testimony this week of Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, at a hearing about antisemitism on campus. Columbia has said there have been a number of antisemitic episodes, including one attack, and many Jewish students have seen the protests as antisemitic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      US House to vote on long-delayed foreign aid bills – including Ukraine support

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      The US House of Representatives will finally vote on Saturday on a series of foreign aid bills, bringing an end to a months-long standoff in Congress led mostly by Republicans who refuse to support funding Ukraine’s ongoing military defense against Russia’s invasion.House members will hold separate votes on four bills that represent $95bn in funding altogether – including roughly $26bn in aid for Israel, $61bn for Ukraine, $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Gaza.The package largely mirrors the foreign aid proposal passed by the Senate in February, although the House legislation designates $10bn of the Ukraine funding as a repayable loan to appease some Republican members who are hesitant to approve additional aid.If passed, the legislation will provide a crucial financial lifetime for Ukraine at a time when the country’s military appears at its most vulnerable since the start of the war, due to dwindling supplies of ammunition and air defense missiles.The bills are expected to pass the House, after they easily cleared a key procedural hurdle on Friday before the final vote. Those that pass will be combined into a single package in order to simplify the voting process for the Senate, which will need to reapprove the proposal before it can go to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.The procedural vote on the House package was 316 to 94, with 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans supporting the motion. The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, needed to rely on Democratic votes to pass the procedural motion, and he will almost certainly need to do so again to get the Ukraine aid bill across the finish line.“It’s long past time that we support our democratic allies in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific and provide humanitarian assistance to civilians who are in harm’s way in theaters of conflict like Gaza, Haiti and the Sudan,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said on Friday. “House Democrats have once again cleared the way for legislation that is important to the American people.”Much of the House Republican conference remains opposed to sending more money to Kyiv, and Donald Trump once again voiced frustration with approving additional Ukraine aid in a social media post on Thursday. Fifty-five Republicans and 39 Democrats opposed the procedural motion on Friday.Johnson’s reliance on Democratic votes to pass key pieces of legislation, including a major government funding bill that cleared the House last month, has outraged some hard-right Republicans.“What else did Johnson give away while he’s begging Democrats for votes and protection?” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative from Georgia, said on Friday on X. “We do not have a Republican majority anymore, our Republican Speaker is literally controlled by the Democrats and giving them everything they want.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionLast month, Greene unveiled a motion to remove Johnson as speaker, although she has not yet moved to force a vote on the matter. In the past week, two more House Republicans – Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona – have signed on as co-sponsors to Greene’s motion, citing their mounting frustration with Johnson’s leadership.“We need a speaker who puts America first rather than bending to the reckless demands of the warmongers, neocons and the military-industrial complex making billions from a costly and endless war half a world away,” Gosar said in a statement on Friday.If Greene moves forward with the motion to vacate, Johnson will once again need to rely on Democratic votes to save him, as Republicans will have just a one-seat majority after Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin resigns in the coming days. Several House Democrats have indicated that they would come to Johnson’s assistance if the motion to vacate is brought up for a vote, and the speaker has appeared undaunted by the threats to his job, which he has held for just six months.“I’m going to do my job, and I’m going to stay dug in,” Johnson told radio host Mark Levin on Thursday. “I’m not changing who I am or what I believe, and I’m going to try to guide this institution.” More