KYIV, April 27 – U.S. President Joe Biden sent Congress a $33 billion request to fund more weapons and provide longer-term economic assistance for Kyiv, as Russia’s military is gradually seizing more territory in Ukraine’s east, pushing south from the city of Izyum with the apparent aim of cutting off Ukrainian forces.

Biden said Thursday that the $13.6 billion in funding that Congress had initially provided to Ukraine to help cover the first two months of the war was nearly depleted and that far more was needed, describing the conflict as being at a pivotal point, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The push for more Ukraine aid has garnered broad bipartisan support in Congress and signals how the U.S. and its European allies are preparing for a longer war that could grind on for months.

Thursday’s proposal, as described by administration officials, includes $20.4 billion in military and security aid. It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed a swift response to any greater Western involvement in the conflict.

Russian forces have seized villages south of Izyum in recent days and are gathering for a fresh thrust after Ukraine halted their progress, Ukraine’s military said Thursday. Ukrainian and Western officials and analysts say Moscow’s progress is slow and has yet to achieve a decisive breakthrough.

Russia at the end of March switched its immediate objectives from taking Kyiv and ousting the elected government to seizing chunks of territory in Ukraine’s east. But any success in severing Ukrainian units’ supply lines might not be decisive, analysts say, because Russian forces would be vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks and face tough urban fighting.

Moscow is seeking a quick advance before Ukraine is able to transfer new and rejuvenated units to the east, bolstered by heavy weapons promised or already delivered by the West, analysts say. Ukrainian officials say Russia is suffering heavy losses.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night address that he was grateful to the American people and to Biden for the request for more aid for his country and that he hoped Congress would act quickly.

“The negative consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and against democracy are so large-scale for the whole world that, in comparison with them, this support from the United States is necessary,” Zelensky said.

Lawmakers in Washington have said that they have been prepared to approve another package of military, humanitarian and economic aid for Ukraine quickly, but that they have disagreed over whether to tackle Biden’s request on its own, as Republicans want, or combine the Ukraine request with other spending packages, as Democrats prefer.

The House on Thursday approved legislation to create a lend-lease agreement designed to speed up the transfer of military equipment to Ukraine, similar to what the U.S. did with Britain during World War II. The Senate passed the bill earlier this month.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that more than half of the 90 howitzers it recently pledged to Ukraine had been delivered. Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said that by the end of May, arms would have arrived in sufficient quantities to change the balance of forces on the front.

“By the middle of June…we will be ready to go on the attack,” he said in a Ukrainian television interview late Wednesday.

The West is funneling arms, such as artillery and antiaircraft guns, and ammunition to Ukraine to help it defend itself in a new phase of the war, in which heavy weapons are expected to play a more important role. The weapons will take time to have an effect on the battlefield. Some of the systems are new to Ukrainians and require training and integrating into Kyiv’s military. The Pentagon said it had completed howitzer training this week for 50 Ukrainians who can pass on the knowledge to teammates.

Russia has quickly thrown together the remnants of units that were decimated in fighting around Kyiv in the first weeks of the war and sent them into fighting in the east. That has left Russian forces there without sufficient logistical and other support, preventing a significant breakthrough, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday, describing Russian advances as minor.

“They have not taken enough time to rebuild forces wrecked in fighting around Kyiv,” said Frederick Kagan, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington. “They are hurling them into combat as they become available.” (wsj/ez)