Biden signs $40B Ukraine aid as Zelensky hints at ceding territory

By Edward Era Barbacena

US President Biden signed the bill granting $40 billion in aid to Ukraine while attending a state dinner in South Korea, as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky hinted he may be willing to cede territory to Russia to save civilian lives.

The legislation, which passed Congress with bipartisan support, includes $20 billion in military assistance and intelligence support, $8 billion in general economic support, $5 billion to address global food shortages that could result from the collapse of Ukrainian agriculture, and more than $1 billion to help refugees.

The bill was delivered to Biden under unusual circumstances: a US official carried a copy on a commercial flight to Seoul for the president to sign, after it was held up in the Senate for a week by Kentucky’s Rand Paul, according to a White House official.

The bill signing set off rounds of speculation about exactly what weapons the US will send and when.

“Sources say it’s not the case yet that the US is to provide Ukraine with MIM-104 Patriot systems in the foreseeable future,” tweeted Illia Ponomarenko, a defense reporter with the Kyiv Independent news outlet. “Such an option is considered as a long-term, post-war step to support Ukraine as a strong regional military power ensuring peace and stability.”

The signing came a day after Russia’s most significant victory so far in the nearly four-month-old war, the capture of the port city of Mariupol, and on the day Zelensky marked the third anniversary of his inauguration.

Zelensky indicated he might be willing to cede some of eastern Ukraine to Russia to spare the population.

“I believe that no matter what appetite different sections of our population have, the most valuable thing is to save more people, soldiers,” Zelensky said at a news briefing Saturday, according to Pravda Ukraine.

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"No one just gives anything away, but there is land that they entered and occupied, and there are some areas where they have advanced very far in,” Zelensky continued. “To reach the line that existed before [February] 24th without unnecessary losses, I think … that would be a victory for our country.”

“We have broken the backbone of one of the strongest armies in the world. We’ve already done that. Including psychologically. They won’t get back on their feet for the next few years,” Zelensky said. “But let’s not forget that all our soldiers also want to live.”

While Ukraine could win on the battlefield, the war will only end “at the negotiating table,” he said, according to The BBC.

The conflict “will be bloody, there will be fighting, but it will only definitively end through diplomacy,” Zelensky said.

On Tuesday, Kyiv’s lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said talks were on hold. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday accused Kyiv authorities of not wanting to continue talks to end hostilities, according to the BBC.

Ukraine forces continued Saturday to fend off barrages of shelling from Russia in several cities in the eastern Donbas region.

At least 12 civilians were killed in the city of Severodonetsk, where thousands are still holed up amid constant artillery fire, Sky News reported.

“The Russians are wiping out Sevierodonetsk like Mariupol.” Luhansk governor Serhiy Hajday said in a post on Telegram, according to multiple reports.

The city is normally home to about 100,000 people. It’s unclear how many civilians are left but it’s believed several thousand remain, including many elderly who refuse to abandon their homes.

About 50 miles west of Sevierodonetsk, the town of Sviatohirsk was shelled by Russian forces in the early morning Saturday, Donetsk Oblast Governor told the Kyiv Independent, destroying the local school.

The school was built in 2016 with help from the UN and Japan, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a tweet sharing video of the building reduced to rubble.

Separately, Russia’s Gazprom stopped delivering gas to Finland. The shutdown comes days after Finland and Sweden applied for admission into NATO.

Russia claimed it was cutting off the fuel deliveries because Finland refused to pay in rubles, which it demanded because of Western sanctions.