U.S. Approves $45B Aid For Ukraine, Urges Putin To 'Acknowledge' Reality

U.S. lawmakers on Friday green lighted a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine and its NATO allies. The measure, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that passed the Senate a day earlier, will now go to President Biden for signing into law, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

This military and economic assistance follows U.S. aid worth around $50 billion sent to Ukraine earlier this year, as well as sanctions imposed on Russia by the West that now include a cap on Russian oil prices.

The White House praised the bill, calling it "another demonstration of our bipartisan support for Ukraine" after President Zelenskyy’s recent visit to Washington.

"I will sign it into law as soon as it reaches my desk," President Biden said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Biden on Friday signed another bill - the $858 billion annual defense authorization act after Congress passed the legislation just before the year-end deadline.

The act authorizes the full fiscal year 2023 budget request for the European Deterrence Initiative and extends and modifies the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It also expresses the sense of Congress that the U.S.' commitment to NATO is ironclad, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a unified response to Russia's war in Ukraine and other shared security challenges.

Washington on Friday also urged Russia's Vladimir Putin to acknowledge reality and pull troops from Ukraine after he finally called the conflict a “war.”

Since February, the Kremlin has officially spoken of a “special military operation” and imposed a law that criminalises what it calls "misleading terminology". But at a news conference this week, Putin himself used the word “war” and said that he hoped to end it as soon as possible.

“Since February 24, the U.S. and the rest of the world knew that Putin’s ‘special military operation’ was an unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine. Finally, after 300 days, Putin called the war what it is,” a senior U.S, administration official said on Friday.

“As a next step in acknowledging reality, we urge him to end this war by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine,” the official added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.