US military aid to be sent to Ukraine right away

Reuters is reporting that $1 billion worth of US weapons will be sent to Ukraine immediately, including vehicles, Stinger air defence munitions, and additional artillery and anti-tank ammunition, following Senate approval of a larger $61 billion military aid package.

A US official stated that the package – part of $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan approved on Tuesday by the Senate in a bipartisan 79-18 vote – will also contain High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, which can launch long-range missiles. 

"It's going to make America safer, it's going to make the world safer," US President Joe Biden said today, after signing the bill into law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the package "reinforces America's role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world".

The EU agreed to its own 50-billion-euro package of Ukraine aid in February, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently confirmed another £500 million of aid, on top of £2.5 billion the UK had already pledged for 2024.

Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has caused one of the world’s largest displacement crises. According to UNHCR, two years later, around 3.7 million people remain internally displaced, 6.5 million have fled, and 14.6 million require humanitarian aid.

To get a clearer picture of the human impact on ground level, read Nizar Al Rifai’s take: A Ukraine diary: Reflecting on two years of war