(NewsWorthy.news) -President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that Kiev and Washington are setting up a 10-year bilateral military aid agreement. The deal would secure ongoing financial support for the war-torn eastern European nation for the next decade.
The news comes as Zelenskyy pressures the U.S. to speed up its delivery of arms to the frontline after a long-stalled $61 billion aid deal with Ukraine was passed by the House of Representatives. In a statement released on April 28, the Ukrainian leader thanked the congressmen for their support and for voting through the aid package, after a discussion with House Minority Leader and Democratic New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Though the amount committed to military aid to Ukraine in particular has been a cause for concern for many Republicans highlighting the relative lack of investment in securing the southern U.S. border, it is part of a larger $95 billion aid package voted through that also includes Israel and Taiwan. This is not the first ten-year aid deal arranged by the White House in recent years; in 2016 former President Barack Obama secured a record $38 billion deal in military aid to Israel. At the time Obama stated that the deal would help boost the country’s security in a “dangerous neighborhood”. In his statement following his talk with Jeffries, Zelenskyy said the two countries were focused on making the pact the “strongest of all”. He revealed that the ten-year plan includes military, political and financial support in addition to shared arms production. Zelenskyy praised the efforts of both governments in working on the draft.
Other leading western countries are also committing more foreign aid to Ukraine, such as the United Kingdom, which recently announced it would send an additional £500 million in aid to the country. After the House voted through the aid bill in April, Zelenskyy warned that Russia is reaping the benefits on the frontline of the slow delivery of arms to Ukraine, especially from the United States. Zelenskyy has placed particular emphasis on the country’s need for more U.S.-made Patriot systems, and Ukraine’s need to boost its artillery ammunition and air defense system arsenal. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, who stood by Zelensky as he called for faster deliveries, said it was not too late for a victory for Ukraine against Russia.
Copyright 2024, NewsWorthy.news
