CHICAGO (CBS) — Two years into the war between Ukraine and Russia, financing Ukraine’s struggle has become a battle in itself in a divided Congress.
This week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visited Chicago, home to a large Ukrainian population and many refugees. He joined Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and the governor’s sister, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery, Penny Pritzker, for a roundtable discussion with Chicago-area business leaders.
During his short stop, Shmyhal also made time for one interview – with CBS 2.
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“It was no doubt for me to visit such a great city of Chicago. We met companies from Chicago and it was a very good conversation. Many of them are in Ukraine. Some of them would like to participate in the Ukrainian recovery Shmyhal said. . “It will be the largest project ever. The World Bank estimates that we will need $486 billion to restore Ukraine.”
The Republican leadership of the U.S. House Wednesday unveiled the legislative text for a bill that would provide $60.8 billion to strengthen Ukraine – in addition to another bill to support Israel while addressing humanitarian needs, and a third to counter China in the Indo-Pacific to go.
Johnson said he would give lawmakers 72 hours to review the legislation, so a vote could take place as soon as Saturday. President Joe Biden said he would sign it into law, calling on the House to pass it this week and the Senate to quickly follow. Both Houses will go into recess next week.
Shmyhal said U.S. assistance is of utmost importance.
“American assistance is critical and critical to Ukraine. The United States is our great partner, our ally,” Shmyhal said. “This support is not about Ukraine. It’s not about charity. It’s about global security. It’s about our mutual security.”
Shmyhal said that since the war began, many people have died in Ukraine – not only from death, but also from the need for people to flee for their own safety.
“A very important task for us is to bring all these people back to Ukraine after the war is over,” he said.
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Although Shmyhal did not mention Russian President Vladimir Putin by name when talking about war, CBS 2 did ask him to talk about the Russian leader.
“It’s clear to me. This is a brutal, illegal, unprovoked aggression by Russia against Ukraine, and Putin is a dictator, and he is an aggressor – and must be punished,” he said. “Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim, and we are protecting our lives; our families, and we protect our mutual values.”
Ukraine was also known as the breadbasket of the world, producing wheat, corn and sunflower products for export around the world, including many developing countries. The fertility of the soil in Ukraine is attributed to Chernozem – the richest soil in the world, which contains a large amount of organic matter made from decomposed plants, called humus.
Much of Chernozem has now been destroyed, and unexploded landmines lie where that grain once powered the world.
“As of today, 156,000 square kilometers are under mining pollution,” Shmyhal said. “This looks like a territory of Britain, and this all needs to be demined.”
Shmyhal explained what Ukraine needs – especially from America.
“We just need weapons, and we need ammunition. When I asked our soldiers on the front line, and they told me that we have a shortage of artillery shells, this ratio is one to ten – so we use one artillery and the Russians use 10 artillery shells. So you can’t win the war if you have one artillery shell and your enemy has ten.”
He said the artillery shells are needed “so that we will liberate our country, win this war and be great partners for the next 100 years.”
Although U.S. funding is at stake, NATO recently announced plans to potentially fund Ukraine’s fight with more than $100 billion over five years.
Brad Edwards
