May 9 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Monday signed new a new "lend-lease" military and economic aid package for Ukraine after the measure was passed overwhelmingly by Congress last month.
The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act package offers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government weapons, military equipment, medicines and food for its war against Russia, with payments deferred to a later date.
The United States supports Ukrainians "in their fight to defend their country and their democracy against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's brutal war," Biden said during a White House ceremony while flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind.
"Every day Ukrainians fight for their lives," the president said. "The cost of the fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is even more costly."
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Biden noted that Sunday was VE Day, marking the end of World War II in Europe, and Monday is Europe Day, commemorating the anniversary of the effort at European integration that ultimately resulted in the European Union.
"It's something that is good for everyone," he said.
The program is based on the U.S. military lend-lease program during World War II, which allowed Washington to help its European allies resist Nazi Germany, with the costs deferred.
The Ukrainian version was supported by nearly every member of Congress, though 10 House Republicans voted against it.
The signing came as Russia has launched a major offensive to take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after failing to capture its capital city of Kyiv at the start of the war. Russia has moved more than 50,000 troops in or near separatist-occupied regions of Donbas.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 with attacks from the north, east and south of the country. Russia had announced that it captured the key southern port city of Mariupol but has struggled to remove the last Ukrainian resistance fights from the massive Azovstal steel plant there.
A renewed effort was made to evacuate the remaining civilians from the steel plant with the help of the Red Cross and the United Nations before Russian moved in again.
