President Joe Biden signed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 on Monday. The bill expedites military aid to Ukraine.
If “Lend-Lease Act” sounds familiar to you then you paid attention in your U.S. History classes.
FDR signed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. It allowed America to supply aid to the UK, Soviet Union, China, and the rest of the Allies with food, oil, and other materials like weapons. FDR said the aid would defend America.
The aid totaled $50.1 billion ($690 billion today). It ended America’s neutrality in WWII.
Plus, what happened on December 7, 1941?
Basically, Biden brought us deeper into the Russia-Ukraine war. Oh, who am I kidding? Everyone has been involved in this war since February 24:
Recent days have underscored just how engaged the United States has become in the conflict in Ukraine. In addition to the new lending program, which will waive time-consuming requirements to speed arms to Ukraine, Mr. Biden has proposed $33 billion more in military and humanitarian aid, a package that congressional Democrats plan to increase by another $7 billion. He sent the first lady for a secret visit to the war zone. And he provided intelligence helping Ukraine to kill a dozen generals and sink Russia’s flagship.But even after two and a half months, Mr. Biden is still anxious about looking like the United States is fighting the proxy war that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says it is. While Mr. Biden publicly sends aid and signed the lend-lease bill on camera, off camera he was livid over leaks about the American intelligence assistance to Ukraine that led to the deaths of Russian generals and the sinking of the cruiser Moskva out of concern that it would provoke Mr. Putin into the escalation Mr. Biden has strenuously sought to avoid.After reports in The New York Times and NBC News about the intelligence, Mr. Biden called Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III; Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence; and William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, to chastise them, according to a senior administration official. That seemed to be where Mr. Biden was drawing a line — providing Ukraine with guns to shoot Russian soldiers was OK, providing Ukraine with specific information to help them shoot Russians was best left secret and undisclosed to the public.
Sorry, Biden. We’ve been in a proxy war with Russia since you started supplying military items and money to Ukraine. The West has also been involved with all the sanctions, strongly-worded letters, and money going to Ukraine.
Ukraine is losing millions every day as Putin bombards the port cities:
Ukraine loses $170 million every day it is cut off from access to the sea and the national export capacity had been more than halved, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday.”Ninety million tonnes of agricultural produce, which Ukraine planned to export to countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, have been blocked,” Mr Shmyhal said in the southern port city of Odessa, speaking alongside European Council President Charles Michel.Mr Shmyhal said some produce had been exported on road or rail, but some other reserves remained in areas under shelling, or had been captured by Russia.
Zelenskyy also spoke about the situation:
“For the first time in decades and decades, in Odesa there is no regular movement of the merchant fleet, there is no routine port work. This has probably never happened in Odesa since World War Two,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.”And this is a blow not only to Ukraine. Without our agricultural exports, dozens of countries in different parts of the world are already on the brink of food shortages. And over time, the situation can become, frankly, frightening.”Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of maize (corn) in the 2020/21 season and the No.6 wheat exporter, according to International Grains Council data. But nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are now stuck in Ukraine, a U.N. food agency official said on Friday. read more”Immediate measures must be taken to unblock Ukrainian ports for wheat exports,” Zelenskiy said earlier on his Telegram messaging channel.He did not specify what measures he was seeking. NATO countries including the United States have ruled out armed intervention for fear of triggering a wider war.
I wonder what Putin told him during all of those phone calls:
France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said it would take “decades” for a candidate like Ukraine to join the EU, and suggested building a broader political club beyond the bloc that could also include Britain.The idea immediately found favour with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who described it as a “very interesting suggestion” that he was “very pleased” to discuss with the French leader.Ukraine, which is battling Russia’s invasion, is seeking EU membership, and the European Commission has said it will respond to the request next month – a key step before the issue is taken up by member states.But Mr Macron buried any hopes of swift membership for Ukraine, suggesting rather that it may be more efficient to consider building a wider club beyond the EU.”I am saying this in all honesty – honesty that we owe to the Ukrainians,” Mr Macron said.”We can have an accelerated process… to accept candidate status for Ukraine but we know that given our standards and the criteria, it would probably take decades for Ukraine to really join the European Union.”
Russia basically has Mariupol. Now they’ve turned their eyes back to Odesa, an important port city in western Ukraine, leaving two injured and destroying five buildings:
The regional military head says three missiles struck the southern port city.Two people were injured and taken to hospital, Serhiy Bratchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.Five buildings were destroyed, he added.Odesa is under curfew until 05:00 (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday following several Russian attacks in recent days.Earlier on Monday, European Council President Charles Michel had to take shelter from one such missile strike while in the city.
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