Ukraine welcomes delayed US aid but few say they expect Russia’s defeat

Experts say the $61bn package that was debated for months will replenish military stocks but won’t help Kyiv’s forces counterattack.

Chernihiv, Ukraine – Tamara was pregnant when she had to hide for three weeks in the ice-cold basement of her house in Chernihiv, a northern Ukrainian city.

“When [Russian bomber] planes were above us, the only thing we could do was to pray,” she told Al Jazeera, recalling the war’s beginning in February 2022 that devastated her city and forced two-thirds of its 300,000 residents to leave.

On April 17, she relived this horror when Russian missile strikes here killed 18 people and wounded dozens.

“Why can’t the West understand that every day of the delay means more deaths?” she said on Saturday outside a golden-domed, 17th-century church where a remembrance service for the victims was about to begin.

She was referring to United States military aid that had been stalled in the US House of Representatives since October because of objections from House Republicans allied with former President Donald Trump.