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Joe Biden signs the law on the very day that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin is being celebrated in Moscow
Photo Credit: IMAGO/Yuri Gripas / IMAGO/UPI Photo
US President Joe Biden has signed a law facilitating the delivery of armaments to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.
Biden spoke of an "important tool in supporting the Ukrainian government and people in their fight to defend their country and democracy" against Russian President Vladimir Putin's war.
“The cost of the fight is not small.
But giving in to aggression is even more expensive.«
The US President will thus be authorized until 2023 to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe affected by the Russian war of aggression.
Certain formal requirements in the procedure are to be suspended.
The bill passed the US Congress with a broad, bipartisan majority.
The US Congress had passed a similar lend-lease law in 1941 during the Second World War: This allowed America to quickly and in bulk deliver armaments to the Allies fighting the National Socialists.
Biden calls Putin's speech "historical revisionism"
Biden signed the new law into law on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin held a military parade marking Victory Day over Nazi Germany in Moscow.
Putin again drew parallels between the fight against Nazi Germany and the current military operation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin chief also said that Russia must defend itself against an "unacceptable threat" posed by its western-backed neighbor.
The White House has dismissed the Russian President's speech as "historical revisionism" and called his claim that Western aggression led to the war in Ukraine "manifestly absurd."
At the weekend, the First Lady surprisingly traveled to Ukraine to show solidarity.
The US President is currently not planning any trips to the country, according to Washington.
ani/dpa/Reuters/AFP