US Vice President Joe Biden (R) speaks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before he addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, September 18, 2014.
In a blitzkrieg vote on Dec. 11, both chambers of the U.S. Congress passed a landmark bill known as the Ukraine Freedom Support Act 2014 that offers Kyiv defense weapons worth $350 million and the status of a U.S. non-NATO ally.
Now it’s up to the U.S. President Barack Obama to enact this bill by signing. In the next few days, Obama will get it on his table. But if he fails to sign by the end of the year, the bill will have to go through a new cycle in the U.S. Congress.
“Now we are rallying to ask Obama to sign the bill,” said Constantin Kostenko one of the leaders of the Pass2828 campaign that was launched by the Ukrainian diaspora. The campaign asked Americans to call their representatives and ask them to support the bill.
"Throughout more than three decades of my professional work, I have occasionally seen strong advocacy efforts on behalf of various Ukraine-related legislation, but never have I seen such intense, concentrated advocacy by the Ukrainian-American community and other numerous friends of Ukraine as yesterday afternoon and evening to ensure House passage of S. 2828,” said Orest Deychakiwsky, senior policy adviser of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
The bill 2828 was introduced by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) and its equivalent in House of Representatives, number 5859, -- by Rep. Jim Gerlach (Republican-Pennsylvania).
There was one more bill in the House of Representatives previously numbered 5782, but it was replaced by an identical bill, 5859, Kostenko said.
These bills say that Ukraine will receive from the U.S. the newest anti-tank and anti-armor weapons, counter-artillery radars, tactical troop-operated surveillance drones, and some communications equipment. These weapons would reinforce the military capacity of Ukraine’s troops fighting Russian-backed separatists and Russian regular troops in the east of the country.
“There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of State $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2015, $125,000,000 for fiscal year 2016, and $125,000,000 for fiscal year 2017 to carry out activities under this section,” says the bill 2828 regarding financing of the U.S. military assistance.
The bills also pledges $50 million in cash for Ukraine for energy solutions, promises further sanctions against Russian defense and energy sectors, and expands Russian-language broadcasting in post-Soviet countries to counter Russian propaganda.
During his visit to the U.S. in September, President Petro Poroshenko asked to supply Ukraine with arms and grant it the status of a special partner of NATO in the military sphere. But he didn’t get it at the time.
The sudden success of pro-Ukrainian legislation at the U.S. Congress was hailed by many in Ukraine. “It’s hard to stop the flow of thoughts regarding victory in the USA… and thanks to thousands of people, who worked for the result,” Hanna Hopko, head of Committee on Foreign Affairs in Ukrainian parliament, wrote on her Facebook.
But it’s a little too early to uncork the champagne.
Steven Pifer, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and now director of the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, said there is still a debate in the U.S. government on whether America should arm Ukraine. “Thus far the policy remains on to provide only non-lethal military assistance,” he said.
Adrian Karatnycky, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that even when the bill becomes law, it will be up to the Obama administration to decide when and how exactly the weapons could be sent to Ukraine.
“This is anchored with President Poroshenko’s promise that such weapons would not be used to take back territory but purely the western assistance to be used for defense of currently held Ukrainian territory,” he added.
Kostenko said that the bill would normally become law automatically in 10 days, but because the current Congress is convening in its last few days, Obama actually has to sign it. If he does not do it, imposing a so-called pocket veto, the entire project would have to be re-launched in the new Congress from scratch.
So now friends of Ukraine and the country's diaspora have a new challenge to encourage people to pressure Obama to sign the bill by calling to White House or using other means of lobbying.
“This is a chance for if not stop the war but to deter the war from continuing. This is much more important than fundraisers that raised a couple of thousand dollars, this is much more important than rallies, waving the flags, this is very serious,” Kostenko said.
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