The US will further increase military assistance to Ukraine
The US Senate, as part of agreeing on amendments to the military budget for the 2019 fiscal year, finally approved military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $250 million, according to a report from the upper house of Congress. In the 2018 financial year, $200 million was allocated for these purposes, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington confirmed the Senate's approval of military assistance on its official Facebook page.
87 senators voted in favor, ten voted against and three abstained. According to the latest version of the document, dated July 19, of the $250 million in aid to Kyiv, $50 million will be used to supply lethal weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The final authority for approving appropriations for the Ukrainian army remains the US President.
As the diplomatic mission clarified, in addition to lethal weapons, assistance is also provided in the field of cybersecurity and “reducing dependence on Russian communication technologies.”
The US Senate passed the $716 billion defense budget bill for the 2019 fiscal year on August 1. The tranche for Kyiv is referred to in this document as “military assistance”. The US House of Representatives approved appropriations for Ukraine at the end of May.
At the same time, within the framework of the defense budget for the previous year, which was finally adopted after many months of delay in March of this year, the total amount of financial assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian army amounted to $620,7 million. Of this, purely military appropriations through the Pentagon accounted for $200 million. New The US fiscal year will begin in October.
The US will further increase military aid to Ukraine.