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The outgoing Biden administration wants to fast-track more packages before the aid-skeptic Trump takes office early next year.
The United States will give $500 million in military aid to Ukraine as part of outgoing President Joe Biden’s 11th-hour push to bolster the country’s defenses before he leaves office early next year.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the “major package of urgently needed weapons and equipment” on Thursday, which will include highly mobile artillery rocket systems, ammunition, drones and armored vehicles.
President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory last month could lead to drastic cuts in US military aid to Ukraine, a prospect that has led the current administration to run billions of dollars in assistance already authorized before taking office.
The new assistance closely followed a $988 million security assistance package and a $725 million arms package announced earlier this month.
After Thursday’s package, Biden will still have access to about $5.6 billion from the Presidential Withdrawal Authority to release weapons from American stocks on the front lines without congressional approval.
Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that Biden “will continue to provide additional packages through the end of this administration.”
Help arrives at a critical stage of the war, with Moscow’s troops closing in on the key town of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region after a months-long push.
The Ukrainian military said in recent days that Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the city.
The fall of Pokrovsk, a major logistical hub for the Ukrainian military, would be one of Ukraine’s biggest military losses in months.
Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday he had discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron the possibility of stationing foreign troops in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
During a visit to Warsaw, Macron called for a way out of Russia’s war in Ukraine that takes into account the interests of both Kiev and the European Union, saying the former’s sovereignty and the latter’s security are at stake.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday: “We need peace in Ukraine to have peacekeeping missions.
“That’s why we need Russia to stop bombing, which they are not doing,” he added, ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin. “Before that, we have nothing to talk about.”
