The latest announcement of military support to Ukraine from the United States will lead to further death and destruction in the war, Russia warned today.
On Saturday, members of the US House of Representatives waved Ukrainian flags as they approved a legislative package of $60.84 billion (£49.19bn) to Ukraine.
The package will now go to the Senate, which passed a similar measure two months ago, for expected approval as early as tomorrow.
It will then be passed on to President Joe Biden to sign.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision would “make the US richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians — the fault of the Kiev regime.”
He said that provisions in the legislation allowing the US to confiscate seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to fund reconstruction would tarnish the image of the US.
Mr Peskov added that Russia would enact retaliatory measures.
The US has also approved aid to Israel and Taiwan, which Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said would “deepen crises throughout the world.”
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma committee on international affairs, said: “The new aid package will not save, but, on the contrary, will kill thousands and thousands more people, prolong the conflict, and bring even more grief and devastation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had warned that his country would lose the war without US funding, said he was grateful for the decision.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the aid package “makes us all safer, in Europe and North America.”
On the ground, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its troops had taken control of the village of Bohdanivka in the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.
