Project Sword
Before the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon arrived, Ukraine's ** Zelensky received "New Year's money" one after another. Just after the European Union urgently agreed to aid Ukraine with 50 billion euros, recently, the U.S. aid plan for Ukraine that Ukraine has been thinking about has finally come to good news. According to the U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel**Feb. 4**, after several months of twists and turns, the U.S. Senate finally reached a bipartisan settlement, and the U.S. **'s aid fund proposal for Ukraine was officially approved. It is reported that in this aid plan, which involves a total of 100 billion US dollars, Ukraine will exclusively enjoy 60.1 billion US dollars.
As we all know, the reason why the US aid fund plan for Ukraine has not been approved by Congress for a long time is not only affected by "fatigue in aiding Ukraine" but also implicated in the dispute between the two parties. Because Biden strongly advocated continuing to support aid to Ukraine, which was strongly opposed by the Republican camp, since then, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been squabbling in the US Senate for several months, and the proposal has never been passed. The turning point of the matter appeared recently, with the full opening of the United States in 2024, the dispute between the two parties continues to escalate, and the continuous fermentation of the "Texas border immigration contradiction" has put Biden on the cusp. In order to stabilize the domestic situation and not give the Republican Party a chance to continue to make difficulties, Biden not only made concessions on the immigration issue, but also carried out border policy and aid to Ukraine, thus achieving victory in chaos.
In terms of Biden's new aid proposal, this is a funding plan. The entire plan amounts to $118.2 billion, with $60.1 billion spent on Ukraine, another $14.1 billion for aid to Israel and $20.2 billion for border security. The remaining funds are also related to supporting the Red Sea operation and assisting the Taiwan region. It can be said that this new plan has achieved a balance between all parties, alleviating the current internal contradictions, and allowing the continuation of a series of US foreign policies. Of course, Ukraine is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary of this plan.
Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Ukraine has been able to resist Russia without the strong support of the Western camp. Among them, the United States has contributed the most money and guns. According to data compiled by the Washington Post, from the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the end of 2023, the United States has provided more than $66.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, and Ukraine has also become the country with the largest assistance from the United States since World War II. Previously, due to the delay in the passage of the US aid proposal to Ukraine, there were problems with Ukraine's logistics and supply, and the battlefield collapsed. Now, the European Union and the United States are working together, and after the money is in place, Zelensky will inevitably redouble his life and continue to declare war with Russia to the end.
After Zelensky solves the urgent need, there will inevitably be new changes in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, and Russia's Putin is also starting a series of diplomatic moves while paying attention to the battlefield. According to Turkish Prime Minister Hakan Fidan, Putin is about to visit Turkey in the near future. During the visit, the issue of Ukrainian grain exports will be a key topic of the meeting between the heads of state of Russia and Turkey.
Visiting NATO member Turkey at this critical juncture, Putin is not irrational. In fact, Turkey has always been an outlier in the NATO camp, and in addition to its poor relations with European countries, it is also full of contradictions with the United States. In particular, since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Turkey has unequivocally supported Palestine, which is completely contrary to US policy. During the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Turkey still maintained good cooperative relations with Russia, and it also facilitated Russia's exports. It is reported that Putin's visit to Turkey this time is to focus on solving the problem of Ukraine's grain export through the Black Sea.
As early as 2022, under the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey, Russia and Ukraine reached the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which ensures that Ukrainian grain can still enter the global market through the Black Sea route during the war. From the perspective of the global food market, Ukraine is a major grain exporter, which directly affects global food security. The smooth passage of the Black Sea route not only guarantees Ukraine's grain exports**, but also stabilizes global food prices.
However, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to ferment, Russia has said it will not extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative after it expired in July last year, while Turkey has been working to revive the initiative. It is worth mentioning that in terms of a series of economic issues such as grain exports, there are also contradictions between Ukraine and many European countries. Now, Russia is also holding Ukraine on the food issue, and once the contradictions are fully intensified, how Ukraine and the United States will solve these problems in the future will also be another new hot spot in the future Russia-Ukraine conflict.