US Treasury asks Congress for $14.5 billion to support Ukraine

The US Treasury Department has asked Congress for $14.5 billion in direct support for Ukraine from January to September 2023. This was announced on December 8 by the head of the department, Janet Yellen.

“The United States has provided Ukraine $13 billion in direct financial assistance in addition to military assistance. We have also requested Congress to provide an additional $14.5 billion in aid in the first nine months of 2023,” she said at an Engraving and Printing Bureau event in Fort Worth.

On December 6, it became known that the relevant committees of both houses of the US Congress agreed on a draft defense budget for the 2023 fiscal year. In particular, the document provides for the allocation next year of an additional $800 million for Ukraine and more than $6 billion to contain the Russian Federation in Europe.

Earlier, on December 1, it was reported that the US authorities signed a contract with the leading defense corporation Raytheon for the purchase of NASAMS mobile anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) for Ukraine, the cost of which amounted to $1.2 billion.

On November 16, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, during a speech at the Pentagon at a regular meeting of the group created by Western countries that coordinates the supply of weapons to Kiev, called on Western countries to make more efforts to meet Ukraine’s needs for air defense systems that protect the country’s energy infrastructure.

Earlier, on November 10, the Pentagon announced that the United States had allocated a new $400 million military aid package to Ukraine.

The United States and other Western countries began to actively arm Ukraine and impose anti-Russian sanctions against the backdrop of a special operation carried out by Moscow since February 24 to protect the Donbass. Its beginning was preceded by the aggravation of the situation in the region.

For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.