As of Thursday, President Joe Biden has pledged an extra $800 million in military Ukraine aid, but he also cautioned that Congress would have to authorize more funding.
Heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, and drones are among the latest additions to Ukraine’s military aid package as the fight for the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine heats up. A total of $2.6 billion in military aid has already been authorized by Vice President Joe Biden for Ukraine.
He said that the $13.6 billion in the military and humanitarian relief funds that Congress authorized last month were “nearly gone.”
The next package was likely to include heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian troops in the growing war for the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine, according to a White House official who was not allowed to discuss publicly and spoke under the condition of anonymity.
Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the vital city of Mariupol, Biden was scheduled to talk on the fresh support and the situation in Ukraine more generally. Instead of risking further fatalities by attacking the remaining Ukrainian resistance in the war’s most famous front, Putin instructed his soldiers not to.
Much of this southern port city, which has seen some of the most intense combat of the conflict, has been devastated by Russian troops. Estimated by Russian authorities, roughly 2,100 Ukrainian troops are still holed up in an industrial complex that has been bombarded and repeatedly issued capitulation ultimatums. Since the beginning of the battle, Russian forces have occupied and partially destroyed the port city.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this week that his nation will deploy heavy weaponry to Ukraine. The Netherlands will supply additional heavy armaments, including armored vehicles, according to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Senior U.S. military officials said that Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on American 155mm howitzers in a European nation outside of Ukraine. Ahead of the military’s first-ever meeting at the White House under his leadership on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden paid tribute to the “amazing” job done in equipping Ukraine by US authorities.
In-depth discussions with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and combatant commanders focused on Russia’s almost two-month-long invasion of Ukraine.
In October 2019, a similar event was organized. House Republicans were conducting an investigation into Trump’s conduct as president that would lead to his first impeachment, which focused on allegations that he withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to investigate the adult son of Vice President Joe Biden.