12:19 | Washington, abr. 28.
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US President Joe Biden formally requested this Thursday from the US Congress 33,000 million dollars in additional aid to Ukraine, of which more than 20,000 million will go to military assistance to support kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion .
“As long as the assaults and atrocities continue, we will continue to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.
The president also remarked that it is “critical” that Congress give the green light to this aid, since giving in “to aggression would be much more costly.”
“Our assistance so far has made a difference on the battlefield, helping Ukraine win the battle for kyiv,” Biden said, referring to the success of Ukrainian forces in repelling Russian advances on the capital.
Biden’s request for assistance includes, in addition to sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, 8.5 billion in direct economic assistance and 3 billion humanitarian aid to the country.
At the same time, the US president also proposed today to Congress to donate to Ukraine the funds confiscated from Russian oligarchs as a compensatory measure for the damage caused to that country by Russia in the war.
Biden’s announcements come after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met in kyiv on Sunday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the highest-level visit of US officials to the country. since Moscow began the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Since then, tens of thousands of Ukrainians continue to flee their country daily after two months of Russian invasion: this exodus now amounts to more than 5.2 million, according to updated figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency ( UNHCR).
The refugee crisis is the worst suffered by the European continent since the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) and its figures are close to those of other current exoduses, such as the Venezuelan (6 million people have left that country since 2014) or the Syrian (6.8 million in more than a decade of war).
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(FIN) EFE/CFS
Published: 4/28/2022
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