The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve $95bn in wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel, as Russian forces made significant advances in eastern Ukraine
The US Senate voted resoundingly on Tuesday to approve $95bn in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as a bipartisan super-majority united to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature. The final vote was 79 to 18.
The bill easily cleared a key procedural hurdle earlier in the day. The Senate overwhelmingly voted to advance the measure in a step hailed by the majority leader as “one of the greatest achievements the Senate has faced in years”.
The US Senate voted resoundingly on Tuesday to approve $95bn in wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel, along with defence support to Taiwan, as a bipartisan super-majority united to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature. The final vote was 79 to 18.
In a call on Monday, Biden informed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that he would “move quickly” to send desperately needed military aid, including air defence weaponry, after the bill’s passage by the Senate.
The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defences against China.
Russian missiles attacked a residential district of Kharkiv early on Wednesday, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov. Information on casualties was being clarified, he added. Public broadcaster Suspilne said civil infrastructure had been destroyed in the assault. The air raid alert in Kharkiv region was subsequently lifted.
Russian authorities have arrested Timur Ivanov, a deputy defence minister, on suspicion of taking an especially large bribe. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that both Vladimir Putin, the president, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, were informed. Ivanov, 48, is one of Russia’s 12 deputy defence ministers, and is under Europe and EU sanctions over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces have made significant advances in a narrow corridor in eastern Ukraine, as an offensive to take territory before a fresh injection of western military aid arrives appears to be gathering pace, Dan Sabbagh in Kyiv and Luke Harding report. Footage from Kremlin military bloggers showed a Russian tricolour flying above the shattered village of Ocheretyne, north-west of the occupied town of Avdiivka, after advancing about 5km in 10 days.
Farther north, a large Russian offensive is under way to seize the town of Chasiv Yar. Ukraine’s eastern military command has said 20,000-25,000 enemy troops are trying to storm the hilltop town and surrounding districts.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry is suspending consular services for military-age men living abroad, except for those heading back to Ukraine, in a move designed to increase conscription. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said: “A man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state. It does not work this way. Our country is at war.” Since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, men between the ages of 18 and 60 have to stay in Ukraine, with exceptions. The Eurostat database estimates about 4.3 million Ukrainians were registered in European Union countries as of January 2024, of whom about 20% are adult men – roughly 860,000 people.
Authorities in Ukraine’s Sumy oblast bordering Russia reported four injuries from 51 attacks by Russian forces on Tuesday.
Emergency services in Russian-held parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said a Ukrainian drone strike on Tuesday killed four people in a car north of the town of Melitopol.