عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Zelenskiy Says Aid Approval to Ukraine Reinforces US Role as ‘Beacon of Democracy

Supporters of Ukraine hold flags outside the US Capitol Building after the Senate passed the 95 billion USD national security supplemental that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 23 April 2024. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Supporters of Ukraine hold flags outside the US Capitol Building after the Senate passed the 95 billion USD national security supplemental that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 23 April 2024. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
TT
TT

Zelenskiy Says Aid Approval to Ukraine Reinforces US Role as ‘Beacon of Democracy

Supporters of Ukraine hold flags outside the US Capitol Building after the Senate passed the 95 billion USD national security supplemental that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 23 April 2024. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Supporters of Ukraine hold flags outside the US Capitol Building after the Senate passed the 95 billion USD national security supplemental that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 23 April 2024. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that the US Senate's approval of a multi-billion aid package for Ukraine reinforces America's role as a "beacon of democracy."

"I am grateful to the US Senate for (Tuesday's) approval of vital aid to Ukraine," Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
"This vote reinforces America's role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world."

The Senate approved by 79 to 18 four bills passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday, after House Republican leaders abruptly switched course last week and allowed a vote on the $95 billion in mostly military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and US partners in the Indo-Pacific.

The four bills were combined into one package in the Senate, which President Joe Biden said he would sign into law on Wednesday.

The largest provides $61 billion in critically needed funding for Ukraine; a second provides $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones around the world, and a third mandates $8.12 billion to "counter communist China" in the Indo-Pacific.
A fourth, which the House added to the package last week, includes a potential ban on the Chinese-controlled social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.
Biden's administration is already preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first sourced from the bill, two US officials told Reuters. It includes vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."