Ian Bremmer

NEW YORK – New U.S.-supplied weapons and money are now on their way to Ukraine. Whether to provide additional military aid was a matter of debate for many months in the U.S. Congress. In the end, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson stared down the most right-wing elements of his party and put the matter to a vote. The proposal passed by a margin of 311 to 112, thanks to the support of Democrats. While the same package also provides security aid for Israel and Taiwan, the nearly $61 billion for Ukraine is the biggest component – and will make the biggest near-term difference.

The new aid package will help Ukraine pay for Patriot air-defense munitions, artillery shells, drones, counter-drone weapons, and missiles that can be fired from fighter planes. It is the first injection of cash that Congress has authorized since December 2022, and it is the single largest aid package that Kyiv will have received since the outbreak of the war.

Still, the U.S. has also been helping in other ways. Even before the latest aid package was approved, the Pentagon had quietly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, whose troops immediately put it to use against a Russian airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in the Donbas........

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