regions here in this country. but certainly right now you do feel that the initiative is on the russian sayyed the ukrainians hours have been saying that the fact that they don t have enough ammunition, the fact that they don t have enough weapons is certainly been something that s been holding them back and especially over the past, i would say about two, three weeks since the russians have started a major ariel canada and pain against a lot of the energy infrastructure here in this country. that s when the ukrainians were saying they simply don t have enough air defense missiles. and so you had the president of this country, volodymyr zelenskyy come out really seconds after the age package, who was approved, thanking speaker johnson personally, but the us and the house of representatives in general, and saying that air defense this, those are important that this once again shows the us is leadership. as far as defending democracy in the world was concerned, but definitely the ukraini
important for the ukrainians. and i think it s for a lot of reasons. firstly, so while i think that the us aid, if it gets approved, notch scores by the house, but the senate as well, we ll hit the battlefield pretty quickly and there s several areas where the ukrainian seed and say they are inverted very desperate need at this point in time. first and foremost right now is replenishing some of those air defense missiles that have been so important to keeping cities like the one that i m in right now, safe. but of course course also to help the ukrainians on the front line because fredricka, one of the things that s been happening, especially over the past couple of months, is that the russians have gotten a lot better at using their air force course. they found a way to make their bombs fly further, which means that the ukrainians need more, longer range air defense missiles and longer range air defense systems to try and help their troops on the front line in survive. but at the sa
jon: lawmakers in the u.s. house approving more than $60 billion in aid for ukraine. this vote is 366 and the nays are 56 the bill passed for cooks work support could give you create a critical boost in its fight against russia. senior foreign affairs correspondent dave alcott is alive in kyiv with the latest there. jon, there s a huge sigh of relief here in kyiv for the united states has come through. it has been truly desperate here more than two years into the war russia is getting ground with a massive advantage in artillery and ukraine short of air defense missiles and the infrastructure is in tatters we spoke with one american veteran fighting in training alongside the ukrainians he said troops are courageous but they are missing
warning for months that us aid is crucial to his country survival following the vote, he posted a message thanking the us for its support. cnn s fred pleitgen is in the ukrainian capital of kyiv. fred how are you cranium is feeling about this us aid while i would say very positive, in fact, we re hearing that pretty much from all walks of society here in this country that we re actually celebrations in some places here in the capital, in kyiv. and then of course, we are pretty much the entire government of this country coming out within seconds. the fredreka of this vote passing and thanking the united states for it. and of course it can t be overstated. just how important it is for the ukrainians right now on the battlefield, they ve really been suffering from a shortage of air defense missiles, but also from artillery ammunition as well. in fact, we ve been in touch with a couple of soldiers on the front line. there s one remarkable thing that we heard from one of them i want to re