\n<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian lieutenant was at a firing position on the eastern front, commanding an artillery unit relying on American-provided M777 howitzers<\/a> and other big guns, as U.S. lawmakers gathered in Washington to decide if his cannons would be forced to go silent for lack of ammunition.<\/p>\n But when the lieutenant returned to his base on Saturday night, he got the news that he and millions of Ukrainians had been praying to hear.<\/p>\n \u201cI had just entered the building after a shift change when the guys informed me that the aid package for Ukraine had finally been approved by Congress,\u201d said the lieutenant, who is identified only by his first name, Oleksandar, in line with military protocol. \u201cWe hope this aid package will reach us as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision by American lawmakers to resume military assistance after months of costly delay was greeted with a collective sigh of relief and an outpouring of gratitude across a battered and bloodied Ukraine. It may have been late in coming, soldiers and civilians said, but American support meant more than bullets and bombs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It offered something equally important: hope.<\/p>\n Immediately after the vote passed in Congress, Ukrainian citizens took to social media to offer thanks and express joy, posting American flag memes blending Ukrainian imagery with American symbols like the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n \u201cI have tears in my eyes,\u201d Anton Gerashchenko, the founder of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, a research group, said in a message. \u201cSo much suffering, so much pain. So many lost friends and wonderful people in these horrible years of war. Now there is hope to save more lives of those who are still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n The $60 billion military assistance package<\/a> approved by the House is expected to be voted on by the Senate and signed by President Biden as early as Tuesday. The Pentagon has said it could resume sending weapons to Ukraine within days through a well-established logistics network.<\/p>\n While the Pentagon has not released details of what will be included in the first assistance package, the United States has provided the bulk of the ammunition most desperately needed by Ukrainian forces, including shells for artillery and precision rockets for longer-distance strikes.<\/p>\n Ukrainian officials have said it will also probably help replenish Ukraine\u2019s short- and medium-range air defense systems, including missiles capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles that are being used to devastating effect on Ukraine\u2019s energy grid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Some items, like artillery shells, could start arriving relatively quickly, but both Ukrainian commanders and military analysts cautioned that it would take weeks before the U.S. assistance started to have a direct impact on the fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe frontline situation will therefore likely continue to deteriorate in that time, particularly if Russian forces increase their attacks to take advantage of the limited window before the arrival of new U.S. aid,\u201d analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, wrote over the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lieutenant Oleksandar said the Russians had appeared determined recently to throw as many resources into the battle as quickly as possible to take advantage of Ukraine\u2019s depleted arsenal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Russians spare nothing, neither air bombs nor artillery,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can fire up to two or three Lancets for every one of our cannons in a day, where one Lancet costs more than the cannon itself,\u201d he said, referring to one of Russia\u2019s most sophisticated drones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Franz-Stefan Gady, a consulting senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that even with U.S. assistance, the air defense situation \u201cwill remain challenging for many months to come.\u201d Renewed U.S. assistance, however, will allow European nations to ramp up their own arms production, he said.<\/p>\n Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army major general who is a fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research group, wrote that replenishing air defenses and artillery would be the top priorities for Ukraine but that the bill allowed for other critical and less visible support. That includes \u201cspare parts for US tanks and armored vehicles, drones, mortars, radios, engineering equipment and the panoply of equipment required on the modern battlefield,\u201d he wrote on his Substack page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since American aid stopped flowing into Ukraine this year, Russia has been able to seize more than 360 square kilometers, or about 139 square miles, of land<\/a>, according to the Institute for the Study of War.<\/p>\n As Ukraine was forced to shift to defense, the Russian arsenal has been bolstered by the delivery of missiles and drones from Iran and North Korea<\/a>, while support from China has helped Moscow mitigate the impact of sanctions, helping the Kremlin to convert its economy to a wartime footing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Russia has also managed to replace the more than 315,000 troops that have been killed or wounded in battle, according to American officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Russian army is now 15 percent larger than it was when it invaded Ukraine, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command, said in testimony to Congress<\/a> before Saturday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is setting the stage for a larger offensive in the late spring or early summer.<\/p>\n While the Russians have so far failed to exploit Ukraine\u2019s deficit in both men and arms to achieve a major breakthrough, military analysts warned they may still be able to make significant advances in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Russian forces continue to advance west of the city of Avdiivka, around Lieutenant Oleksandar\u2019s firing position on Saturday. They are also pounding the strategically important hilltop fortress of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If the Kremlin\u2019s forces can seize the important high ground in the area, an agglomeration of the largest cities in the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control would be threatened.<\/p>\n At the same time, Russia continued to hit towns and cities across the country with long-range drone and missile strikes, leveling houses, port infrastructure and energy facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ukraine\u2019s allies have said they are racing to find more sophisticated air defense systems like the American-made Patriots located around Europe to help Kyiv, but Ukrainians expect Moscow to try and do as much damage as it can before those systems arrive.<\/p>\n As they have done day after day for more than two years, rescue workers from Odesa on the Black Sea to Sumy near Ukraine\u2019s northern border with Russia raced to pull people from the rubble of bombed-out buildings as the House voted on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut this day is still a little different,\u201d President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Saturday night address to the nation. \u201cToday, we received the long-awaited decision: the American support package we\u2019ve been fighting for so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kremlin, which U.S. lawmakers have said is orchestrating a sophisticated campaign to shape American public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine, reacted with a mix of bluster and fury.<\/p>\n The Kremlin\u2019s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said<\/a> the military assistance would only contribute to the \u201cruin\u201d of Ukraine. If provisions in the legislation that allow the United States to seize billions in frozen Russian central bank assets to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine are used, he warned, America \u201cwill have to answer for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lt. Col. Oleksii Khilchenko, a 30-year-old Ukrainian brigade commander fighting around Robotyne on the southern front, said the new weapons would allow Ukrainians to fight \u201ceven more fiercely and with all their courage.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis support from American society will save the lives of our soldiers and bolster them across the entire front line,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will use this assistance to strengthen our military and bring an end to this war \u2014 a war that Russia must lose.\u201d<\/p>\n The vote in the House also lifted the spirits of the army of volunteers who have helped sustain Ukrainian soldiers throughout the war.<\/p>\n \u201cA wonderful day today,\u201d said Olena Detsel, founder of the volunteer organization, Three in a Canoe<\/a>, which raises money for urgent needs for soldiers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe news of financial support from the U.S.A. is like a breath of fresh air,\u201d she said in a text message. \u201cIt brings the understanding that we are not alone in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n