1y ago

Zelenskyy thanks US after House passes aid bill

www.euronews.com /2024/04/21/zelenskyy-thanks-us-after-house-passes-aid-bill

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders have applauded the US for passing a vital €89 billion aid bill which has been struggling to make it through the House of Representatives for months.

The House swiftly approved roughly €89 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.

With an overwhelming vote, €57 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as American lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of US support to the war-torn ally. Many Democrats cheered on the House floor and waved blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine.

158 comments

- Fuck Russian scum, I hope the US missiles and tanks fuckin hurt. Putin is a goatfucker too.
  
  Fuck Russian scum
  This should be banned for hate based on national origin
  You have more in common with the Russian working class that is being sent to die in Ukraine than you have in common with American billionaires.
  Putin, Russian Oligarchs, and American Oligarchs are your enemies. Not the common Russian men that are conscripted against their will to die for no reason
- The republican traitor filth should be sent to the front
  Its curious to see someone propose that the punishment for opposing a war is to fight in it. But the reward for supporting the war is to profit from it.
  
  Its curious to see someone propose that the punishment for opposing a war is to fight in it.
  Isn't that literally the Russian policy?
- If this war is so important to you, why are you not over there right now fighting instead of a conscripted Ukrainian?
- Oh geez...you're spending way too much time on Lemmy/Reddit...Republicans are all in favor of helping Ukraine, they're just more careful about sending billions and billions and it becomes an endless money pit...that shit happens all the time, and the Republicans are the "traitors" for questioning why and where all the money is being sent. If it was up to Democrats, there'd be NO questions.... just send money!
  
  I didn't see them pinching the pennies when they were trying to build pointless their 2000 mile border wall
  
  Russia disagrees.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/08/russia-propaganda-us-ukraine/
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/e7843591-08c7-4dab-98e1-d6faad68e048.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_5
  
  Anybody who will actually take the time to read your comment by this point knows you're full of shit. Republicans aren't the party of fiscal responsibility. The only situation in which they actually care about saving money is if it saves money for their 1% handlers.
  
  Every dollar send to help Ukraine will save about 10 dollars you don't have to spend in a full out war.
  It's an easy calculation only a Russian shill or the people dumb enough to believe their lies would dispute.
  
  Here's the facts:
  freedom is hard and expensive
  the conservative "I got mine;fuck you" doesn't work when it's 'others' in need; it doesn't even work when it's poorer Americans in need
  the sea lion questioning is a stalling tactic; always has been.
  Republicans can't even keep a Senate leader, and this guy was right up their seditious theocratic enslaving-women hell-hole alley. They will readily agree to nothing that doesn't fit their cruel and narrow ideological dependencies.
  It always was going to BE a money pit, as that's the alternative to Normandy and ditching the UN shackles (which is a terrible idea but required).
  Time to spend 1/10th as much on Ukraine's military as America spends on its own, and solve this shit.
  
  I'm genuinely thankful you've made it this obvious how much of a fucking moron you are as I can block you immediately and get on with my day.
  
  Why are you being down voted? Is this place becoming an I support the current thing place too?
He doesn't need to thank us, he deserves our thanks for fighting against fascism. Some of the best money the US has ever spent. Now, redirect all money from Israel to Ukraine.
- Seriously, even if Israel wasn't evil, it could still quite easily do whatever it's doing by itself. Even if it wasn't evil, it doesn't need help doing what it does.
  Yet here we are.
- Well, it's just being polite.
  
  Exactly. And showing he doesn't feel entitled to help, and actually appreciates it greatly.
- Two western proxies, Israel and Ukraine, holding off two supermember states of the modern Axis of Evil/Group of Friends: Russia and Iran. Gaza and the West Bank are to Iran what Belarus and Crimea are to Russia, just further along; Russia already has a working nuclear weapons program and have parked nukes in Belarus and taken over reactors in Crimea. Nobody is going to let Iran get that far. Russia says they are fighting fascism, too. Why do you believe it when Iran says it but not Russia?
  
  You do understand that Israel is the aggressor here? Yeab yeah, they had a huge terror attack. After 50 years of continued treating Palestinians like shit and randomly killing them whenever they want, stealing their land, and so on, they (foolishly) strike back and give Israel a bloody nose. Yes, on the personal level, it's a huge tragedy, but on the level of a country, they got a fucking bloody nose. They then proceed to commit genocide, murder thousands of children... You'd think that of there is a single country that knows better, that it would be Israel, but alas, here we are.
  Iran is basically being opportunistic here, bit also just responded to Israel bombing it's embassy. All Ayers here are dirty as shit but You CAN'T claim Israel is even remotely a hero in any of this. Israelites are just happily stealing more land.
- he deserves our thanks for fighting against fascism
  Its 1980 again and my man is the Saddam Hussein of the 21st Century.
  
  0/10
  
  Its 1980 again and my man is the Saddam Hussein of the 21st Century.
  Yes we know Butcher Putin is your man. And yes he is a lot like that other tyrant dictator.
Hot fucking damn, the russian bots are really out on parade in this comment section aren't they?
...Welp, not like they can parade IRL, so I guess they've got to take what they can get!
Shame the TikTok ban went through, but a 60 billion package should give some fresh strength to the defenders of Ukraine.
- I hate this calling idiots bots stuff. It's like calling people NPCs. I think I'm getting old.
  
  I fucking hate the NPC thing specifically. The bots is one thing, you may not actually know if it's an honest person or a paid bot, but to call someone an NPC is just dehumanizing people.
  You do all sorts of shit to an NPC in a video game you'd never do to a real person. I hate that it's normalizing dehumanization.
  
  Kremlin propaganda is a huge problem and sticking your head in the sand isn't helping.
  
  Yeah, the majority of them aren't "bots". It's mostly people acting as useful idiots, parroting talking points put forth by Kremlin backed trolls. The shit reeks of 2018's totally organic "Walk Away" movement -- the arguments and slogans practically rhyme.
  I don't like the "bots" thing either since it's inaccurate to what's actually going on, but at the same time I don't know a concise way to call out pretty obvious Russian state backed AstroTurfing.
  
  At some point, the "russian bots are really out on parade" comments are practically a Markov Chain response in their own right.
- deleted by creator
  
  Problem is you people suck ass at figuring out if you are talking to a bot or not. I have been called a bot several times, here and on reddit. My favorite was when I was talking shit about the MCU. Someone honestly believed there was a bot designed to say the MCU has gone to shit since endgame.
  In the end I doubt there really is much of a 'Russian bot' presence on lemmy because...well....we are a itty bitty little insignificant corner of the internet.
  edit- OH also one of my favorites, also MCU related. I remember this dude on reddit said he was positive wolverine would be in infninity war and when he got downvoted he blamed Disney bots.
Hey, Republicans, do y'all remember Red Dawn? Those two movies you made about The USSR and Russia being the ultimate evil enemy that was going to invade and must be stopped? You do? Good.
My real question is, why in the name of all that is Murican, ARE YOU ACTIVELY HELPING RUSSIA WITH THEIR ILLEGAL AND UNPROVOKED INVASION‽‽‽
- "Red Dawn" is the most compelling reminder here...?
  
  I know several conservatives that swore that movie was a very probable scenario in the 80s-00s. AFAIK they've all left the party.
- Republicans are not helping anyone, you're spending too much time on here buddy. Republicans simply want accountability for the aid. They ask questions, because if it was up to the Democrats, they'd just send, send, send...
  
  Well, you're half right...
  "Republicans are not helping anyone"
It's bullshit that they're being thanked for table scraps that the children had to slap fight over how many scraps are allowed..
Of course anything other than 100% gratitude would be touted by the shittier child for the rest of their life regardless of whether the scraps ended off starvation or not.
My metaphor got a little weird but what the fuck.
- While true that the timing is shit, the amount is nowhere close to "table scraps" - this seems like it will legit be helpful, maybe even enough to turn the tide in Ukraine?
  Also, it's not like Congress fed its own and then waited months to feed the dog - rather, dinner for the entire family was delayed from the start of the fiscal year 2024 in October 1 until just a few weeks ago, involving the ousting of one Speaker of the House and almost doing so to the second as well. And now, this aid package for Ukraine may likewise finish the job of getting the Speaker kicked out, bc any time the government is "functional" is considered bad by some elements.
  But the timing from passing the federal budget itself to passing this aid package is actually quite short. Yes it's half a year late, but it did eventually happen, and the amount of aid is large, so is a "success" by multiple metrics, and all the more so given the opposition. If we do end up having a civil war as people like MTG are calling for, this may well be the last aid package that the USA ever manages to pass in the final stages of its democracy.
  So imho we should take the win and be happy - we may not get to celebrate Congress doing routine activities like "passing budgets" very often in the future, even six months late.
- How much money do you think Ukraine is entitled? After this influx of “scraps”, the USA has contributed more in total dollars than the rest of the world combined. Here is a good source, keep in mind this data is from February and doesn’t include the latest funding: https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts
Sorry we’re late, we let the stupid people plan things and… you know.
Any way to give Ukraine 2-4 years worth of stuff at a time?
- Not at the rate they use it up. The Ukraine military budget has historically been measured in billions ($4-5B/annually going back to the end of the USSR). We've been giving them traunches of aid in the $50-100B range for the last three years. And that's not including the logistical support we've provided out of the Pentagon's baseline budget.
  2-4 years of Ukraine aid at the current scale would be on the order of trillions of dollars. That's what we're spending to play tag in Bakhmut at the cost of hundreds of lives a month. Not even what it would cost to "win" back the Donbas (or what would be left of it) in its entirety. Never even mind Crimea.
Hey, no problem Big Z, I didn't need healthcare, schools, or infrastructure anyways :)
- 1: Unlike some nations, we can do both if we want to.
  2: They weren't going to do those regardless, because our oligarchy doesn't want to.
Bad move. The smart thing to do would be to say "No backsies" just in case this election goes tits up.
- What?
- Looool
Now he can afford the higher quality coke again
- As an anticolonialist, shouldn't you oppose Russian attempts to colonize Ukraine?
  
  No, silly, only America does colonialism /s.
  
  As if Ukraine was at some point NOT a colony of Russia...
  
  Who here is defending Russia?
- Mister Coke-Connoisseur, I have to inform you that he actually fights to defend his people. He doesn't sit around in Moscow taking phone calls for updates about an unjust invasion like that fuckwit Putin.
  
  While making speeches glassy eyed and coked up
Did Zelensky really think the US wouldn’t take another chance to play war games? Nah, we like instability too much. Can’t have Russia gaining too much power/resources now. Sorry we’re late, as usual.
- “half” of the political interest in this nation would have preferred to not give Ukraine a penny and allow Russia to take what they want.
  Right now there is a very real risk that the USA will stop coming to their aid. I am ASHAMED as a US citizen that right now we’re hemming and hawing about getting involved.
  My entire fucking life has been war on foreign soil and NOW when we have a chance to be the honest to god fucking good guys and half of the nation would rather restrict human rights then defend them, it’s sickening.
  
  I feel this, it pisses me off so much. The scumbags are jingoistic as fuck up until the conflict is an ANTI-imperialist one.
- The war is already happening regardless of what the us does. Would you rather we just sit back and let Russia destroy ukraine?
  
  Lots of hate for how the US does business here. But of course I want them to help Ukraine in the end. Doesn’t make all of their politics right. It’s all a big game and if you don’t believe that you’re sadly naive. Our politicians are addicted to the game of chess, it’s not just the power.
Republicans are not against aid, and they ARE NOT in bed with the Russians. This is just ignorant talk by people on Lemmy and Reddit. Republicans want accountability about all the money that is being sent all over the fucking place. If it was up to Democrats, they'd just send, send, send...no questions asked. Keep in mind that Ukraine was once considered one of the most corrupt countries on the planet, so yea, let's just keep sending them billions and billions without making sure the money is actually being used for what it's supposed too...
- How's that boot tasting?
- Republicans want accountability about all the money
  How idiotic can you get?? The accountability is that Ukraine will lose their country and their lives to Putin's Evil Empire if they lose the war. So stop with the nonsense.
  Remember that guy George Bush that you voted for? When he sent $8 billion in US currency to Iraq that was instantly stolen, did you or any other Republican raise a finger? NOPE.
  Keep in mind that Ukraine was once considered one of the most corrupt countries on the planet
  Nope. Russia is considered 10x more corrupt. Ukraine is somewhere near the median of 200 countries.
Zelenskyy thanks US for opportunity to kill some tens/hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians more, as well as pocket a few billion dollars for himself and his friends.
- Yeah, let Russia walz right through Ukraine and then Moldova - what could possibly go wrong! Apart from that, Russia is the one loosing hundreds of thousands soldiers. The difference in the way Ukraine mourns their lost ones is such, that calling Russia "Civilized" in any way is just a blatant lie. Russia is utterly disgusting.
  
  Yeah, let Russia walz right through Ukraine and then Moldova - what could possibly go wrong!
  You know that Zelensky is the one that is not willing to negotiate and just wants to murder as many people as he can?
  For a war to end there needs to be a negotiation (with some quite rare exceptions of totally conquering another country or stalemates like in Koreas), and Russia is constantly saying (even when it's winning) that it is willing to negotiate and end the war, in contrast to Zelensky.
  How hypocritical do you have to be, to be on the side of those who are not willing to negotiate and continuing the war despite everything, and yet accuse the other side of wanting to conquer the world?
- The only ones killing Ukrainians are the Russians and their bloodthirsty lapdogs they send against their will into war.
  
  Answered another one of your comment, but I'll reiterate it here as well - the ones that are killing Ukrainians are Zelensky and his regime supported by the west, by "sending against their will into war".
  If not for that, those people would live, so their blood is on your hands.

158 comments