Biden to sign Ukraine Lend-Lease Act on May 9
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Bill S.3522-Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 was unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate on April 7, and then passed by the House of Representatives, with 417 votes. Lend-Lease is a program that drastically streamlines the process of providing allies with military aid and other necessary resources.
Under it, Ukraine will be able to request weapons and equipment is needs from the United States and its allies, while the U.S. government guarantees that all such shipments will be then replaced or reimbursed. The United States supported the Allies – including the Soviet Union – during the Second World War under a similar scheme.
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According to Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal, Ukrainian intelligence points towards Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gearing up to declare war on Ukraine on May 9 – a move that would allow Moscow to also declare general mobilization.
The Kremlin denies this claim. May 9 is celebrated in Russian as VE Day, and has become the country’s most significant public holiday under Putin’s 22-years in power.
The Soviet victory in its Great Patriotic War (1941-1945 part of WWII) is the lynchpin of modern Russian national identity.
Read also: US House passes Ukraine Defense Lend-Lease Act amid Russia's invasion
Russia refers to the Second World War as the Great Patriotic War to obscure the fact that for the first part of the Second World War the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany.
