The Senate had already submitted.

In early April, the second chamber of the US Parliament passed a cross-party bill called the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022.

On Thursday, shortly after US President Joe Biden asked Congress to provide Kyiv with an additional $33 billion, including $20 billion for military aid, the House of Representatives followed suit.

Like the Senate, it passed the bill, which references the historic 1941 "Lend and Lease Act," by a large majority -- 417 to 10.

A rarity in Washington.

Putin's war makes it possible.

Biden's request to approve 33 billion dollars for Kyiv also finds many advocates among Democrats and Republicans.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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The Lend and Lease Act was passed in February 1941.

It enabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt to equip British forces to fight Hitler - later also the Soviet Union and China (in the war against Japan).

Roosevelt had to overcome opposition from isolationists in Congress who feared the United States was being drawn into the war.

By the mid-1930s, as the storm was brewing in Europe, Congress had passed several neutrality laws.

In the aftermath of World War I, which America entered late—as late as 1917—non-interventionists were on the rise in Washington, particularly among the Republican ranks.

The neutrality laws prohibited the sale and supply of arms to warring factions.

After the outbreak of war in 1939, Roosevelt tried to free himself from this corset.

The laws were changed: America was now allowed to sell arms - on condition that the recipient country paid in cash and took care of the dangerous transport itself ("cash and carry").

Over time, however, London ran out of money.

Churchill pressed Roosevelt.

Since he was not allowed to provide the prime minister with weapons on credit, he came up with the "rent and lease" idea.

The President spoke of a moral obligation: Great Britain is fighting for the sake of all civilisation.

The Blitz, the air war over Britain, changed public opinion in America.

Roosevelt said America is the "armament of democracy".

Ten months after the law went into effect, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

America declared war on Tokyo, after which Germany and Italy declared war on America.

Even without the neutrality obligation, the "Lend and Lease" law remained in force until 1945.

After the end of the war, London only had to return a few goods, such as a few warships.

The Soviet Union, meanwhile, shipped many of the famous Studebaker trucks back to America, which the Red Army had received as transporters.

However, some "Studerys", as the Russians called them, were later used in the collective farms.

Biden wants to avoid becoming a war party at all costs.

And even 80 years later, the delivery of the goods is a critical point.

Should Moscow attack arms transports on the territory of NATO member Poland, for example, the alliance case would have to be applied.

The new "Lend and Lease" law is limited in time.

It is designed to enable fast deliveries to Kyiv.

The government is still reticent about which weapons it intends to “lend” to Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said they don't want to pre-empt the law.