“This aid will strengthen Ukraine and send a strong signal to the Kremlin that this is not a second Afghanistan,” Zelensky said in an interview with the “Meet the Press” program, a country that has been devastated by decades of conflict.
He added: “The United States will stand by Ukraine, and will protect Ukrainians and democracy in the world.”
After long and difficult negotiations, the House of Representatives approved, on Saturday, an aid package for Ukraine worth $61 billion (57 billion euros), which received the support of Republican and Democratic parliamentarians.
The aid package has been blocked for months, mainly due to opposition from a group of Republican members of Congress, reflected in the scarcity of military equipment for Ukrainian forces to confront the more numerous and better-armed Russian forces.
The aid, which Zelensky had been demanding for months, was welcomed by Kiev shortly after the vote, with the Ukrainian president saying it would save “thousands of lives.”
In his statements today, Zelensky said that part of the Ukrainian forces are “exhausted” and need to be replaced.
“But these new soldiers must have equipment,” he added, calling for speedy final approval of the package, which must now be analyzed in the Senate, a process that is supposed to begin on Tuesday, and then be signed by the North American representative. President Joe Biden.
The Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and withdrew in 1989, after more than nine years of an extremely bloody conflict.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched a military intervention in Afghan territory, and the withdrawal of American forces did not take place until August 2021, that is, after almost 20 years.
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