President Biden Asked Congress to allocate more than 24 billion for additional aid to ukraine and other expenses since the beginning of russias fullscale invasion of ukraine, congress has already approved giving ukraine about 113 billion dollars of government funding under some current programs in the usa is currently supposed to stop on september 30, when the fiscal year officially ends in the country , more about the new aid package and what needs it will cover, lets talk with my colleague ostap yarysh, who closely follows this topic. Greetings ostap ostap tell please, what exactly is the white house proposing now , what sums are we talking about, and what does maria plan to direct it to . Indeed, the white house has now asked congress for additional funding in the amount of 40 billion dollars. It includes various articles, 24 of them, practically 24 billion. The white house is asking for help to ukraine and other International Needs , as they say, what is there in so, first of all, more than 13 billion dollars is being asked by the white house to be used for defense expenses, it is also for armed support of ukraine to replenish the pentagons reserves and to continue other military support for ukraine and its partners. In addition , this sum of eight and a half billion dollars has been pledged. This is for economic, humanitarian and other support for ukraine and other countries, these 8. 5 billion 7 billion and for ukraine, other aa, the rest of the funds aa to help other states, in particular on the african continent, which aa which may find themselves or suffer from the influence of the russian war against ukraine, also a little more than 2 billion has been pledged to the World Bank Program for Infrastructure Projects that had to prevent thai influence on other countries as well. If we talk about these 24 billion, which the white house is now asking for on this article of spending on the remaining articles, the white house is also asking to finance additional programs to ensure a better surveillance on the southern border of the United States, in particular with mexico, as well as to overcome natural disasters and natural disasters here in the United States, we really see that this is such a complex package of assistance, it is possible that it will be approved, what steps are to be taken, when the congress can make a decision from its side, really maria this is only the first step this is only a request from the white house, then a rather long process awaits us ahead of us, we know what must be approved and in order to approve it, this and this request have been considered. This proposal has the house of representatives to consider the consideration must be agreed by the majority of the representatives the majority of the american legislators is only after if they agree they can make their amendments they can disagree they can make some differences they can add something and only as two chambers after the two chambers of the Congress Come the final and final decision then this document will lie there is approximately 1. 5 months left for the signature of the president , and approximately, according to expectations , this request of the white house should be considered by september 30, which is when the current fiscal year ago, we will expect, well, there is still quite a lot of time ahead, and it looks like there will be quite fierce debates on the capital hill, we know that all negotiations regarding the allocation of additional funding always cause discussions between democrats and republicans, what are the current dynamics in congress and well, how do you think or can it be assumed that this vote for these additional finances will not be easy, it seems that it will indeed be difficult at least and more difficult than the previous ones, let me remind you that in the last congress allocated additional financing for ukraine it was back in december of the Previous Year in december 2022, then it was about a little more than 45 billion for ukraine and partners, and then it was still the previous composition of the congress where the majority in the house of representatives, the majority of the majority was for the democrats. Now we know the dynamics, the situation has changed the house of representatives has changed, it is controlled by republicans , the senate still got a majority, and you know maria, if after all, in the senate , the majority supports additional funding for ukraine, both republicans and democrats we heard about this from chuck schumer, the leader of the democrats, and we also heard about this from akonol, the leader of the republicans, so in the house of representatives of this oneroom house. This is not what it looks like. We remember that there is a group and there remains a group of legislators there who spoke against supporting ukraine and against the continuation of funding for ukraine and we remember that during the previous vote, when it came to the defense budget, several amendments were cheerfully introduced that aimed to limit further support for ukraine, among them was an amendment that demanded the cancellation of any defense support for kyiv, and then she got 70 votes, thats about a little less than a third of all republicans in the house of representatives, it wasnt enough, after all, this amendment didnt pass and couldnt get a majority of votes , but it looks like that part of the republicans did oppose it then and analysts are now suggesting that it is possible that the debate will be fierce, given that part of the republicans are not happy with the continued funding of ukraine , additional funding but again , we will still have a month and a half ahead monitor and i think we will hear a lot of arguments for arguments against our correspondent kateryna lisunova. By the way, she works in the congress and previously also spoke with legislators , she heard different opinions, so i think we will be careful during the winter, maria, to monitor and report updates, and if they are as soon as possible they will soon appear on our website and on our broadcast. To you ostap for this detailed analysis, i will remind you that under ostap yaresh we talked about the details of the new request of the white house for assistance to ukraine, and speaking of american legislators, they are now in vacation, but our colleague kateryna lisonova prepared a material about the sidelines of the us congress, about the work of journalists on the capital hill, and also about the turbulent history of the construction and destruction of the us capitol this is the building where the congress meets, she will tell in her story if you stand facing the capitol building, then the Senate Meeting hall is located on the right side, and accordingly , the meeting hall of the house of representatives of the son poles consists of 50 senators and senators, and the house of representatives of 435 congressmen and congresswoman, respectively, all buildings to the left of congress are connected to the house of representatives, here are the kumi of the five houses of representatives and the offices of congressmen and contest moment, and respectively, all buildings to the right of congress are connected to the senate, here are the Senate Committees and offices of senators in fact, the most important events in the congress of the United States of america take place in the committees. It is here that the hearings on ukraine, on russia, on the war, on the issues of confrontation with china and actually on the internal issues of the United States are considered of the states of america, and right here on the sidelines you can meet with legislators and talk about current topics, in particular. On this day, the voice of america was present during the hearings of the Senate Committee on International Relations on ways to bring the russians to justice for atrocities committed in ukraine. Global criminal justice issues ukrainianes good Afternoon Voice of America Ukrainian Service can i ask you a question but very quickly i have to get back to chairing the committee topic of these hearings, the responsibility of the russians for their atrocities, is it possible to bring the russians to justice if the ukrainians do not win this war, they must ukrainian wine world, we need ukraine to win this war, period, for the sake of the freedom of ukraine and for the sake of supporting international law, which prohibits the use of aggression against other countries, but we also must guarantee that putins guilty war crimes will be brought to justice. Her name is kateryna. She is wonderful. The magazine says so. My name is kateryna. Wow, again, this is war in ukraine too. Need to make sure that she survives this war so they will have to do everything they have to do to win this war i have a few more questions for the georgian voice of america one more question very quickly very quickly you will say yes to all the questions so lets go just talk to them and everything is to establish a Good Relationship and then they answer you even if they are in a great hurry, in general, covering the hearings in the house of representatives is no different from this work in the senate, although with some exceptions the work of journalists in the house of representatives has fewer restrictions and rules, but in both houses, if a legislator is in a hurry, you must ask for permission to go with him and sign a comment, and if he allows it, you have the right to do so, we will find a way to get the necessary funding for ukraine, there are many opportunities and we will find a way to do something about it ukraine is at war and it is not a war they chose it is a war imposed on them by Vladimir Putin so ukraine has the right to defend itself thus during the meetings of the House Intelligence Committee the voice of america was able to find out the position of american legislators, the miracle of the explosion of the kakhova hydroelectric power plant the day after the tragedy, this is an unprovoked war of aggression and we have already seen many war crimes , this is another devastating attack on the lives of ordinary ukrainian people while the investigation into who is really to blame or what caused it continues dam breakthrough, the usa will stand firmly on the side of the ukrainian people and the government of ukraine , the construction of the capitol began in 1793 , and the central dome, which lasted for decades was completed after the civil war in 1866, during those stormy times, the military was quartered in the capitol, a kitchen and a hospital were created here, despite all this construction , it continued like this two years before the end of the war , a statue of liberty was symbolically installed on the dome, which is located here and until now, it symbolized the endurance of the nation under during the war, at first the chapter house was used not only for legislative purposes, but also for sunday religious services, and twice in its history it was attacked in 1814, it was partially burned by the british during the war. In 2021, it was stormed by supporters of donald trump who disagreed with the results of the president ial election, this carefully designed building saw fights, shootings, explosives, attacks, destruction and restoration, additions and renovations , the Congress Building is connected to the committee buildings by underground tunnels and even one small underground subway kateryna lisonova konstantin head of the voice of america washington this is the live work of journalists or congress. We thank kateryna lisonova for showing us how this is happening behind the scenes , meanwhile, on friday, the Us Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against the russian financial elite. This time , financiers associated with alpha groups, in particular petro aven and mykhailo fridman, who own sense bank in ukraine, were included in the sanctions review list. In july, the nbu announced the withdrawal of this bank from the market and proposed its nationalization, citing the decision of the us treasury, the deputy minister of freedom, adeno emphasized that our International Coalition continues bring to justice those who are involved in a possible unjust and unprovoked invasion of ukraine , the former Us Ambassador to russia said in an interview with the voice of america that ukraine and the western countries need to strengthen their work with the socalled neutral countries that have not yet expressed a clear position on the russian war and Stanford University professor Michael Mackle , according to the diplomat, the recent talks in saudi arabia helped to establish a relationship with such countries, but what position can china play in peace talks and also, what kind of end to this war do the Biden Administration see, see the interview of my colleague from the russian voice of america service, mykhailo komedovsky. Do you think that ermak and his delegation during the negotiations in saudi arabia succeeded in convincing the countries of the global rooster to reconsider their vision of russias war in ukraine in the world an alarming trend is observed, the majority of democratic europe unites for ukraine together with other allies such as the United States, but the global south, africa , latin america, the middle east, asia in these in the regions, there are many countries that stand aside, they vote neutrally in the un, they do not vote together with the proukrainian coalition, but here it is important to understand that they did not vote for russia during the first big vote in the general assembly, russia had only six votes in its favor, and during the last vote, several months ago, they received seven such votes, mali changed her position after the coup detat, which, by the way , was helped and supported by the russians, so the point is not that these states are prorussian, they are neutral, and i believe that in the west, as ukraine also needs to better explain to such countries why putins war is a war of imperialism, it is the same war of imperialism against which all these countries fought 30 or 40 years ago. It does not officially support either russia or ukraine. Do you think china continues to promote its own peace proposals or does it support the peace plan . Of president zelensky i think they are trying to play a very delicate game on the one hand they are trying to stay close to their autocratic partner and ally russia to adhere to the socalled the pact of friends without restrictions is the document they signed with russia before putin invaded ukraine, and on the other hand, not to push back the west and not to go too far so as not to incur sanctions, for me it is very remarkable that they never supported the annexation of crimea in 2014 and the current annexation of four other regions, and i think that the job of president zelensky and his partners in the west, including the United States, is to keep china at bay and hope that china will play a more proactive role its useless, but maintaining a certain neutrality of china , as it has been happening so far, i think is a great achievement of ukrainian diplomacy in ukrainian diplo view in your opinion , how does the Biden Administration see the resolution of the russian war in ukraine, i understand the white houses anxieties and reluctance to participate directly, but if you seek to end the war as soon as possible, the strategy should include a greater number and better quality of weapons for ukraine , as well as more powerful sanctions against russia , because better weapons and i am specifically talking about long range attack Missile Systems and f16 fighter jets yes the provision of such weapons will hasten the end of the war while the absence of these weapons will lead us to a stalemate that could drag on for years and years on this issue i do not agree with the Biden Administration but i know that they are considering the possibility of providing these weapons and i think that this discussion continues in the first version of this interview with the former ambassador of russia and the United States of america to russia , michael mcflunn, see it on our Youtube Channel of the Ukrainian Service of the voice of america and also read the text version on our on the website, we have a lot of interesting interviews with american experts about the russian war against ukraine. Also , follow us on social networks. We are represented on youtube, instagram, facebook and telegram, among other news. On august 7 , another military exercise began in belarus. This time they are taking place a few tens of kilometers from the borders with poland and lithuania, not far from the suvel corridor , in addition, there are about a hundred mercenaries of the wagner pvk in the same area. Poland and lithuania have already said that it is perceived as a provocation and the Prime Minister of poland we, too, morovecki even called it a step towards a further hybrid attack on the territory of poland , my colleague Myroslava Gongadze visited the border of the three countries and will tell how the countries on the eastern flank of nato are preparing for potential threats, i must say that lithuanians and officers with i talked there at the border, they say that they are absolutely ready, they are ready, they have greatly increased surveillance at the border , of course they do not announce where exactly they are, but they constantly appear there on this small well if we talk about this region, it is approximately 40 km from the border between belarus and lithuania and very immediately the border with poland, that is, practically it is such a triangle where three countries connect and from this side to the other to the other on our side of the border on on the belarusian side, military exercises are being conducted in belarus when we were on the po