The text, which poses a gigantic $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan could be approved this Tuesday.
It has the support of Republicans and Democrats.
“Let’s not keep our friends around the world waiting a moment longer,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who favors quick adoption.
“The Senate faces a test,” echoed Republican leader Mitch McConnell. “We must not fail,” he said before senators begin debating it around 5:00 p.m. GMT.
If Congress approves, the bill will become law with President Joe Biden’s signature.
A process that is announced to be more fluid than the long negotiations in the House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans, before its adoption last Saturday.
On Monday Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to send him military aid “quickly.” It could be a matter of hours, at most, days.
Of the total amount presented to Congress, 61 billion dollars are for Ukrainewho suffers hardships on the battlefield against Russia.
The Ukrainian army faces a shortage of recruits and ammunition that weakens it in the face of constant pressure from Russian troops in the east.
The situation on the front may worsen towards mid-May and early June, which will be a “difficult period,” the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirilo Budanov, warned on Monday.
– Anti-aircraft defense, Ukraine says it will strengthen with aid –
Zelensky stated that US aid will reinforce “air, long-range and artillery defense capabilities”, in a message uploaded to the X social network after speaking by phone with Biden.
The debate in Congress over aid to Ukraine has revealed divisions between Democrats and Republicans.
But also the scuffles between conservatives in the middle of the campaign for the November presidential elections, which will be a duel between Biden and his predecessor, the Republican Donald Trump.
On Saturday, during the vote in the House of Representatives, some congressmen waved Ukrainian flags to the boos of anti-aid Trumpists.
The US president and the Democratic Party favor aid to Ukraine, which they see as an investment in US security in the face of what they see as Russia’s aggressive ambitions.
Republicans, however, are increasingly reluctant and the conservative leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, blocked the text for a long time.
He finally supported the resumption of military and economic aid with this phrase: “To put it bluntly: I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys.”
The aid package also includes $13 billion in military aid for Israel, at war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and more than $9 billion to “meet the urgent need for humanitarian aid to Gaza and other vulnerable populations around the world.
It also includes 8 billion more to help Taiwan counter potential threats from China, which threatens to reincorporate it into its territory one day, even by force.
The text also provides for the ban of the TikTok application in the United States within a few months, unless the social network cuts its ties with its parent company, ByteDance, and in general with China.
Source: With information from AFP
