shipments of weapons and military equipment are in route from the US to Ukraine tonight after President Biden today signed a $95 billion Aid package supporting military operations in Ukraine Israel and Taiwan it comes after months of wrangling and debate over how involved the US should be in Foreign Wars the bill overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last night with a bipartisan 79 to 18 vote after the house approved the package on Saturday in signing the legislation which includes 61 billion for Ukraine the president today called it a good day for World Peace Ukraine recently stepped up calls for help from the West as Russia makes significant gains in its Invasion but the approval of the aid is also facing significant backlash in the US because it includes $26 billion to fund Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians a Monmouth University pull out today finds public opinion on the package is divided with just over 40% of Americans in favor and 35% opposed also sandwiched in the legislation is a bill that could eventually lead to the Banning of tick tock in the US giving Chinese parent company bite dance roughly nine months to sell it or be banned from App Stores Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski today showing his gratitude for the money and arms help on social media wrting in simply thank you America but is it too little too late in this war we turn to Alan Sanders professor emeritus of political science at St Peters University Allan Sanders great to talk to you I'm curious if this Aid package to Ukraine specifically is more of a morale boost or is this enough money and weapons to shore up Ukraine's defenses and allow it to make some Pro press this year Well it certainly is a morale boost but it's also very substantively important it's a huge package UH 60 billion that's a lot of money for a lot of equipment some of it's sophisticated some of it more standard um and it comes at a time when Ukraine badly needs it although we should note the last Aid package was somewhere around $75 billion so it is a bit less but I guess the question is how quickly can it get to the front lines right and and how much good it can do there right well that's a good question uh President Biden has said that he will start shipping equipment right away uh and so some of it will get there but of course other equipment will take uh longer to get there but you know uh morale as we pointed out is also important it means that the Ukrainian forces know that reinforcements are coming and therefore they'll be willing to fight aggressively and understand that um you know they're not alone now anymore predictability of supply has been a big issue for Ukraine and there is a major offensive Russia is planning uh for this summer June or July it's uncertain at this point um is this going to put holes in Russia's ability to invade I mean what are they up against right now just how far behind the eightball is Ukraine well they're on the defensive right now and of course Russia has huge um amounts of equipment and uh really huge amounts of money that they're willing to commit to this so they're facing an adversary that is quite powerful and uh very much so more powerful but remember when you're trying to defend territory when it's your own territory you have the advantage of knowing the ground and also having support of uh the local population so uh Ukraine faces immense odds but nonetheless this will be a huge boost and we know as you've pointed out uh that the summer months are the months when the conflict really blows up even further because the weather permits that and so this a comes at a key moment when the weather is now turning uh in a way that will allow for Battlefield combat to progress and so it's important for Ukraine to have all the equipment it needs at this point um I'm thinking about the presidential election in November and if president Trump is reelected um what that will mean for Ukraine and consequently if Europe will step up to help Ukraine fill in some of its shortfalls well Europe is committed to the defense of Ukraine and it will step up but the reality is that the Europeans are much more disorganized and they talk a lot and they do a lot less than what they talk about uh that's part of the problem of the European Union and and the European States individually uh if Trump gets reelected yes this will mean real trouble for Ukraine because Trump now has an isolationist wing of the Republican party let me ask you quickly about the uh Israel portion of this because in making his remarks today President Biden said that there are uh you know War atrocities violations of international law being committed by Russia and and pointing out that that's why it's important to get this funding over to Ukraine but is that not the same argument being made by members of Congress like Bonnie Watson Colman members of the Senate who voted against the package strictly because it contains money for Israel who is accused of doing the same well it's accused of doing the same but whether it is actually doing the same is really up for debate look the Israelis are facing a uh war of National Security um the enemies Hamas and Iran uh and all the other en that surround Israel have said that they want to wipe Israel off the map and so when you're facing adversaries of that type uh you're going to take some very aggressive um uh countermeasures and Military measures now whether some of those have exceeded um you know um conventional standards uh we'll have to wait and see Professor Allan Sanders for us tonight thanks so much my pleasure Brianna take care [Music]