Kyiv jubilant after US ratifies $60bn in aid; Moldova’s pro-Russia parties gather in Moscow

21 Apr 2024

Ukrainian authorities were jubilant at the approval in the US House of more than $60bn in aid, though the focus is shifting to how quickly assistance can get to the front line and how the package will change Kyiv’s fortunes in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

A branch of Moldova’s pro-Russian opposition met in Moscow on Sunday to create a new anti-European political bloc that aims to derail the nation’s planned European Union accession process.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will bring a contradictory mission when he visits China this week: convey the gravity of US concerns regarding Chinese companies’ support for Russia’s war machine, while also making sure the relationship with Beijing doesn’t go off the rails again.

Zelensky cheers US aid as Kyiv looks to retake initiative

Ukrainian authorities were jubilant at the approval in the US House of more than $60-billion in aid, though the focus is shifting to how quickly assistance can get to the front line and how the package will change Kyiv’s fortunes in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

For Ukrainian forces in an increasingly precarious position after months of waiting, the anticipated passage of the military and economic assistance is a bittersweet moment. Since US President Joe Biden proposed the aid, Kyiv’s military has been increasingly hamstrung as stocks of ammunition dry up and Kremlin forces press their advantage on the battlefield.

The legislation passed by the House late on Saturday will probably make it to Biden’s desk this week after the Senate takes up the package as soon as Tuesday.

“This support will really strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, through an interpreter. “We did lose the initiative. Now we have all the chance to stabilise the situation and to overtake the initiative.”

Ukraine is in constant contact with the US to ensure the “package has the right things, which are so much awaited by our warriors on the battlefield,” Zelensky said in his regular address to the nation on Sunday. “The time between political decision and real hitting of the enemy on the front line must be as short as possible. Now, every day matters.”

Read more: Zelensky says US aid gives Ukraine means to retake initiative

But whether the long-awaited aid will enable a decisive change in Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield is another question. Stepped-up missile and drone attacks by Moscow have wiped out parts of Ukraine’s power-generating infrastructure and destroyed residential buildings in city centres, driving up the war-battered nation’s civilian death toll.

The US Defense Department could get weapons moving to Ukraine “very quickly” once the aid Bill clears the final hurdle, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said last week. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, said on Friday that delivery logistics had been in the works all along.

“The Pentagon and our Defence Ministry didn’t stop working daily together at finding weapons, identifying them and such packages are being prepared,” Markarova told Ukrainian television.

Some of the equipment, which will likely include longer-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, could be on the way by the end of the week, Democrat Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Painful shortages in weapons and manpower along the 1,200km front, along with a dire need for more air defence systems, have pushed Ukraine’s fighting forces close to breaking point, raising the risk of a Russian breakthrough. Moscow has also escalated its bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in what Ukrainian and Western officials see as a bid to force an evacuation of the city, less than an hour’s drive from the Russian border.

Even if US materiel moves quickly, transport logistics will probably mean the aid “will not begin to affect the situation on the front line for several weeks”, according to analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

“The frontline situation will therefore likely continue to deteriorate in that time, particularly if Russian forces increase their attacks to take advantage of the limited window before the arrival of new US aid,” the analysts said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, seeking to benefit from the widening gap in ammunition supplies, have ratcheted up their firepower all along the front and made marginal gains since capturing the eastern city of Avdiivka in February.

Kremlin troops are focusing on strategically key spots, such as the town of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, as they currently outgun Ukraine’s army in artillery on the battlefield 10-to-one.

“The Ukrainians have been seriously damaged and their armed forces are weaker than they would have been otherwise,” Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, wrote after the US House vote. “At least now, however, with a major infusion of US aid, the Ukrainians should be able to stabilise the line.”

Moldova’s pro-Russia parties gather in Moscow to plot strategy

A branch of Moldova’s pro-Russian opposition met in Moscow on Sunday to create a new anti-European political bloc that aims to derail the nation’s planned European Union accession process.

The bloc, called “Victory” and affiliated with the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, aims to challenge President Maia Sandu and her pro-European government in elections due between October and mid-2025.

The meeting took place in Moscow because Shor, the coordinator and financier of the participating parties, is subject to a 15-year prison term in Moldova for masterminding a scam that stole $1-billion from the country’s banking system.

Shor is based in Israel, where he was born, and travels frequently to Moscow. Moldova has requested his extradition through Interpol.

Moldova faces three crucial votes in just over a year.

Its presidential election, in which Sandu will face a pro-Russian candidate in her bid for a second term, takes place 20 October. A pro-EU constitutional referendum is set for the same day, and parliamentary elections follow in the summer of 2025.

Read more: Moldova’s president faces protests as new pro-Russia front opens

Moldovan authorities have warned that the grouping around Shor is the main tool Moscow is using to try to destabilise the nation of more than 3 million. According to special services, the group is the main source of anti-EU disinformation and attempts to disrupt life in Moldova through violence.

Blinken to warn China over its support for Russia

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will bring a contradictory mission when he visits China this week: convey the gravity of US concerns regarding Chinese companies’ support for Russia’s war machine, while also making sure the relationship with Beijing doesn’t go off the rails again.

While China hasn’t crossed the US red line of offering lethal assistance to Russia in the form of weapons or munitions, Blinken, who will visit Shanghai and Beijing on April 24-26, will deliver a warning that Washington and its allies are united in their opposition to China’s role.

A senior US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Blinken would spell out the implications for European security.

The trip is the latest in a series of visits by senior US officials as Beijing and Washington look to make good on promises outlined in San Francisco late last year to ease tensions that had led to an almost complete breakdown in the relationship.

That effort has been complicated by what US officials say is the decision by Chinese companies to keep providing components to build cruise missiles and drones as well as other technology that’s allowed Moscow to escalate defence production in its invasion of Ukraine.

The visit also will follow the gathering of Group of Seven foreign ministers this week in Capri, Italy, where European officials echoed the US sentiment regarding Chinese support for the Russian industrial base.

“Looked at it from 40,000 feet, it looks like the San Francisco vision is somewhat intact,” said Jude Blanchette, an expert on China and foreign investment at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Once you start to come down in elevation, though, problems emerge.”

Blinken’s trip follows that of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who took a similar message to Beijing and warned that Chinese banks would “face significant consequences,” including US sanctions, if they provided material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“When it comes to Russia’s defence industrial base, the primary contributor in this moment to that is China,” Blinken said during a briefing in Capri on Friday. “We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defence industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade.”

Ukraine asks Apple, Google to crack down on military gambling

Zelensky has banned gambling by the country’s military over concerns that it’s sapping morale and posing a security risk in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

The ban for soldiers includes betting in gambling establishments and on the internet while under martial law, according to the decree signed by Zelensky. Ukraine’s Cabinet will restrict advertising and ask Apple and Alphabet’s Google to prohibit gambling game applications in their stores without an appropriate licence.

The move follows a petition filed by Ukrainian serviceman Pavlo Petrychenko, who said some soldiers on the front line were spending their earnings on betting, taking out loans, and even pawning military equipment — such as drones and thermal cameras — to meet gambling debts.

Read more: Ukraine tackles gambling addiction within its military ranks

The government plans to elaborate later on the restrictions for all kinds of gambling advertising, while the National Bank of Ukraine will make recommendations to banks to block payments to gambling accounts online.

Petrychenko’s petition, which quickly gathered the necessary 25,000 signatures to be considered after being issued in late March, also cited the risk of Russian online casino operators targeting customers with ads designed to secure access to private data from military personnel and civilians. Petrychenko died on the front line on April 15 and was buried in Kyiv this week.

US House passes $95bn in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

The US House passed $61-billion in fresh aid for Ukraine on Saturday, ending a six-month political impasse during which Kyiv’s stockpiles dwindled in its war against Russia.

The Ukraine aid will be combined with funding for Israel and Taiwan, for a foreign assistance package totalling $95-billion.

Speaker Mike Johnson worked with Democrats and overcame fierce objections from within his party to funding Ukraine, ultimately pushing that legislation to passage on a 311 to 112 bipartisan vote.

“We did our work here and history will judge us well,” Johnson said after the vote.

The Senate is expected to pass the package, which was negotiated with the White House, next week. Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to take it up on Tuesday, starting with procedural votes, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

The vote marks a victory for Republican defence hawks against the more isolationist wing of the party led by Donald Trump. Even so, more Republicans voted against further aid to Ukraine than in favour.

The $61-billion Ukraine Bill has $13-billion to replenish US stockpiles of weapons already given to Ukraine and $14-billion for US defence systems for Ukraine. It also has $7-billion for US military operations in the region.

The Bill’s $9.5-billion in economic assistance to Ukraine comes in the form of a loan that the president can fully forgive after the next election. The loan idea was first floated by Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee. DM

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World

Zelensky cheers US aid as Kyiv looks to retake initiative

Moldova’s pro-Russia parties gather in Moscow to plot strategy

Blinken to warn China over its support for Russia

Ukraine asks Apple, Google to crack down on military gambling

US House passes $95bn in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan