Now that the Senate has approved a nearly $61 billion aid package to Ukraine, and with President Biden poised to sign it, desperately needed American weapons could be arriving on the battlefield within days.
The weapons package — which has been delayed over political wrangling by House Republicans since last fall — is “a lifeline” for Kyiv’s military, said Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s national security committee.
But it will not include everything that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has asked for as his military struggles to hold firm after two years of war against invading Russian forces.
Here is a look at what Ukraine says it needs, what it is expected to get in the American aid package and whether it will be enough to make an immediate difference.
What Ukraine wants.
Above all, Mr. Zelensky says Ukraine needs artillery ammunition and long-range missiles to strike Russian forces, along with air defenses to protect cities and key infrastructure like military bases, power plants and weapons factories.
“We need to inflict maximum damage on everything that Russia uses as a base for terror and for its military logistics,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address to Ukrainians on Monday.
