US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said lawmakers want to provide Ukraine with $600 million for "lethal defense weapons" to battle Russia's attack against the country.
"What we're doing with Ukraine is making sure that we have humanitarian assistance to help the people; that we have lethal defense weapons going into Ukraine to the tune of $600 million for them to fight their own fight," she told reporters in San Francisco, according to the Reuters news agency.
Pelosi also said that Congress will receive an in-person, classified briefing from the Biden administration next week regarding the evolving situation between Russia and Ukraine.
She added the response from the US and its allies against Russia “will be severe, ongoing and devastating for Russia, economically, diplomatically, and strategically.”
Pelosi said Russia launched a “premeditated war” against Ukraine that was “an attack on democracy and a grave violation of international law, global peace and security.”
“Putin’s unprovoked actions will cause devastating loss of life and a diminishing of Russia in the world order,” she stated.
Earlier on Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced what he described as “additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia.”
“We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies. We will limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds, and yen," said Biden.
Later in the day, European Union (EU) leaders agreed to impose new economic sanctions on Russia, though they stopped stop short of taking steps to cut Russia off from the SWIFT global interbank payments system.