The US House of Representatives has approved more than $40bn in aid for Ukraine. President Joe Biden had asked Congress to approve an additional $33bn in aid for Ukraine two weeks ago, but lawmakers decided to increase the military and humanitarian funding.
“This bill will protect democracy, limit Russian aggression, and strengthen our own national security, while, most importantly, supporting Ukraine,” Democratic representative Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the House appropriations committee, said.
Some Republicans opposed the bill, criticising Democrats for moving too quickly to send too many US taxpayer dollars abroad.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukrainian forces have retaken villages in the Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his nightly address. The number of civilians killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war is “thousands higher” than official figures, the head of the UN’s human rights monitoring mission in the country said. At least 100 civilians remained in the Azovstal steelworks under heavy Russian fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an aide to the city’s mayor said.
However, Belarus has said it will deploy special operations troops in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine. The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said Moscow had agreed to help Minsk produce missiles and warned Belarus could “inflict unacceptable damage on the enemy”.