Finnish President Alexander Stubb thanked members of the US Congress who voted on Saturday to approve a defence aid package for Ukraine valued at around 60 billion US dollars (56 billion euros).
Stubb issued the statement on Saturday night in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Specifically, the Finnish leader thanked US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and congress members "for bipartisan support".
In his post, the president noted that the aid package's next legislative step in Washington is a vote in the US Senate. Then, if passed as expected, the bill will still need to be signed by US President Joe Biden before the aid can begin flowing.
According to an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Saturday, those legal requirements and logistics issues mean that it will take several weeks before the military equipment will reach Ukrainian troops.
"Ukrainian forces may suffer additional setbacks in the coming weeks while waiting for US security assistance that will allow Ukraine to stabilize the front, but they will likely be able to blunt the current Russian offensive assuming the resumed US assistance arrives promptly", the ISW's assessment read.
The US Senate passed a similar measure a couple of months ago and is expected to approve the current one in the coming week, according to Reuters.
The US military aid for Ukraine — which passed with broad bipartisan support— was part of a larger legislative package valued at around 95 billion US dollars (89 billion euros), which also included security assistance for Israel and Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed gratitude about the US Congress passing the defence aid bill, saying it would help to save lives and "bring a just end" to the war, Reuters reported on Saturday.
President Stubb has recently called on European countries to increase their preparedness in order to defend themselves against possible aggression from Russia — while also saying he thinks such a scenario is unlikely within the next several years.
Earlier this month, Finland announced its 23rd military aid package for Ukraine, a donation valued at 188 million euros. According to the defence ministry, that shipment brought the total of Finland's military aid donations to the war-torn country to around two billion euros.