Biden seeks $33 billion for Ukraine, a massive jump in funding

US President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., on April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File photo

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine – a dramatic escalation of US funding for the war with Russia – and new tools to divert assets from Russian oligarchs.

The vast funding request includes more than $20 billion for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5 billion in direct economic assistance to the government and $3 billion in humanitarian aid.

“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said at the White House after signing the petition Thursday. “The cost of this fight, it’s not cheap, but giving in to the aggression will be more expensive.”

The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine, but Washington and its European allies have supplied kyiv with weapons, including drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Biden also wants the ability to seize more money from Russian oligarchs to pay for the war effort.

His proposal would allow US officials to seize more assets from oligarchs, give the money from those seizures to Ukraine and further criminalize sanctions evasion, the White House said.

The proposed steps include allowing the Justice Department to use the strict U.S. racketeering law once implemented against the mob, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, to build cases against people who evade sanctions. .

Biden also wants to give prosecutors more time to build such cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of five. It would also make it a criminal act to withhold money knowingly taken from corrupt dealings with Russia, according to a summary of the legislative proposals.

The moves are part of US efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, as well as to help kyiv recover from a war that has reduced cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.

The new request represents the full amount US officials expect to need through September, the end of the fiscal year. It includes assistance for food security, economic stimulus for Ukraine, and funding to use the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of key minerals in short supply due to war. read more

But the funding measure may run into trouble on Capitol Hill. Biden asked for $22.5 billion in COVID-19 response money in March and Democrats with tight control of the Senate and House may push to pass it at the same time as the Ukraine measure.

While lawmakers broadly support Ukraine spending, Republican congressional aides said Thursday that efforts to combine war funding with pandemic response could make it difficult to pass.

“I don’t care how they do it,” Biden said. “They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”

US military aid to Ukraine alone has exceeded $3 billion since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and expel fascists in Ukraine. kyiv and its Western allies dismiss it as a false pretext.

The United States and its European allies have frozen $30 billion in assets held by wealthy people with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, the Biden administration said.

Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Edited by Robert Birsel and Alistair Bell

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