Home › Politics › Lend-lease vote and peace terms: 6 April 2022
Lend-lease vote and peace terms: 6 April 2022
Summary
A look back at a day when Washington moved to speed arms deliveries to Ukraine while Moscow set out its conditions for ending the invasion.
What did diplomacy and weapons policy look like in the days after the Bucha revelations? On 6 April 2022, the answer came in two parts: a unanimous vote in the US Senate and a Russian statement on the terms of peace.
Washington moves on lend-lease
The US Senate unanimously passed a law authorising President Joe Biden to use the lend-lease programme, last applied in the Second World War, to speed the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. The vote was a rare show of unity, and it was aimed at the pace of deliveries.
Moscow sets its conditions
On the same day, Russia said it would end its invasion if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted conditions set out during negotiations. The main one was a legal guarantee that Ukraine would not join NATO, written into the Ukrainian constitution. Russia also said it had suspended operations in Kyiv as a goodwill gesture meant to promote peace talks.
The shadow of Bucha
The statements came two days after the scale of events in Bucha became clearer. On 4 April 2022, police in the Kyiv region and local residents said a mass grave in the town held at least 150 people, while the mayor said the toll could reach 300. Zelenskyy visited the site.
The battle for Bucha, part of the wider offensive to take Kyiv, had run from 27 February to 31 March 2022 and ended with the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Also on 4 April, Biden called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial after more images of the massacre emerged. Zelenskyy said that peace talks would continue despite Bucha.
A day of parallel tracks
Taken together, the developments of 6 April 2022 ran on two tracks. In the US Congress, senators backed a faster flow of equipment to Ukraine. In the negotiations, Russia tied an end to its invasion to a constitutional ban on NATO membership, while Kyiv had said talks would go on. The Senate vote and the Russian terms were announced on the same day.
