Biden signs £73bn aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan

President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan amounting to £73 billion. Kyiv will receive nearly £47 billion. This ends a months-long dispute in the USA on the matter. Biden announced that the first weapons shipments would head to the front "in the next few hours."

Joe Biden signed the bill that the Senate passed. - It's going to make America safer, it's going to make the world safer and it continues America's leadership in the world and everyone knows it - followed in a statement.

He emphasized that the bill "gives vital support to America 's partners so they can defend themselves from threats to their sovereignty".

- It's also an investment in our security. When our allies are stronger, we are stronger too - said Biden.

The President of the United States stressed that if Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there. We’ll have something that we don't seek and that we don't have today: American troops fighting Russian troops. He also announced that the USA will send equipment to Ukraine in the next few hours, including ammunition for air defence and artillery, missile systems, and armoured vehicles.

The bill provides £47 billion in military and economic support for Ukraine, £20 billion for arms for Israel and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, £6 billion for the purchase of weapons for Taiwan, as well as strengthening security in the Indo-Pacific region.

In addition, the bill includes a series of permissions for imposing additional sanctions on Iran and Russia, provisions authorizing the president to allocate frozen Russian assets (£3-4 billion) for aid to Ukraine, and a bill that would force the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell the application within 12 months.

According to Pentagon and White House announcements, the first package - expected to contain equipment worth £770 million - will include artillery ammunition and air defence missiles.

According to senators from both parties, under the new bill's provisions, ballistic missiles ATACMS with a range of about 300 km (roughly 190 miles) are also expected to be delivered to Ukraine. So far, the USA has supplied Ukraine with a small number of ATACMS in a version with half the range