President Biden called on Congress on Thursday to approve $33 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, arguing that American weapons and humanitarian assistance are helping to beat back Russian invaders in a conflict with enormous consequences for the US and the world.

“The cost of this fight is not cheap,” he said in a statement made at the White House, addressing domestic concerns about the expense. “But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.”

“We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine,” he added.

The massive aid package would eclipse all the spending by the US so far on the war and ramp up America’s investment not just in Ukraine’s defence but, more broadly, in weakening Russian military capacity, a goal outlined in recent days by defence secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

There is broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for more aid but it remained uncertain whether the issue could get tied up in negotiations over ancillary issues like Covid relief or immigration.

While Biden’s letter to Congress endorsed tying the Ukraine aid to a separate $22.5 billion pandemic response package, he told reporters that did not really care whether the two measures were linked or passed separately as long as both were approved. The President also said he is sending lawmakers a legislative plan to make it easier to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs tied to President Putin.

New York Times News Service