Lula Slams US Billions in Military Aid to Ukraine

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the Biden Administration for delivering billions in military assistance to Ukraine at the expense of Americans. “It is not possible that President Biden, who never made a speech to give a dollar for those who are dying of hunger in Africa, announces $40 billion to help Ukraine buy weapons; it is not possible,” Lula said Thursday during an event in defense of national sovereignty in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

RELATED:

Ukraine’s Credit Rating Plunges as Massive “Foreign Aid” Flows

On Tuesday, the leader of the Brazilian Workers' Party questioned how a country lacking milk for babies, as is the case of the U.S., could choose to allocate billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine.

Washington's financial assistance to Kiev includes $6 billion for new armaments and military training for Ukrainian forces, $8.8 billion for economic aid, as well as $8.7 billion to replenish arms stockpiles delivered by Washington, among other areas.

The aid package, approved in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, also contains $3900 million for U.S. forces deployed in the region, and $900 million for housing, education and other assistance for Ukrainian refugees in the United States.

Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies have directed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms shipments to Ukraine. 

Moscow asserts that the West is putting its own security at risk by arming Ukraine, as they are “adding fuel to the fire” of the conflict, which “will have tragic repercussions.”