U.S. President Joe Biden announced more than US$8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday to help Kyiv repel Russian invaders, using a visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a major commitment.
The aid includes the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb called the Joint Standoff Weapon, with a range of up to 81 miles (130 km). The medium-range missile gives Ukraine a major upgrade to the weapons it is using to strike Russian forces, allowing the Ukrainians to do it at safer distances.
The bomb, capable of striking targets with high accuracy, is to be dropped from fighter jets. Biden will not announce that Washington would let Ukraine use U.S. missiles to hit targets deeper in Russia, a U.S. official said.
“We’re making clear that we stand with Ukraine now and in the future,” Biden told reporters ahead of a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. He said the U.S. would continue to help Ukraine strengthen its position on the battlefield, and that he had directed the Pentagon to allocate all remaining security funding by the end of his term in January.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden for his support and said it was important to secure Ukraine’s future in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Zelenskyy has long sought NATO membership, but the allies have stopped short of taking that step.
The bulk of the new aid, US$5.5 billion, is to be allocated before Monday’s end of the U.S. fiscal year, when the funding authority is set to expire. Another US$2.4 billion is under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies rather than pull them from U.S. stocks.
This will provide Ukraine with additional air defense, unmanned aerial systems and air-to-ground munitions, as well as strengthen Ukraine’s defense industrial base and support its maintenance and sustainment requirements, Biden said.
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Under his plan, the president said, the Defense Department will refurbish and provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defense battery and more Patriot missiles.
Biden ordered the Pentagon to expand training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots, including by supporting the training of an additional 18 pilots next year.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden and the U.S. Congress for the new military aid package, saying Ukraine would use it “in the most efficient and transparent manner.”
“I am grateful to the United States for providing the items that are most critical to protecting our people,” Zelenskyy said on X, mentioning the Patriot battery, drones and long-range missiles.
Republican criticism of Zelenskyy
To combat Russian sanctions evasion and money laundering, the U.S. will act to disrupt what Biden called “a global cryptocurrency network, in coordination with international partners.”
Biden said he will convene a leader-level meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany next month to coordinate efforts of more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine.
Before meeting Biden, Zelenskyy sat down with Democratic and Republican lawmakers at the Capitol. He talked with about two dozen senators from both parties for more than an hour, before a separate bipartisan session in the House of Representatives with about a dozen lawmakers.
“It was bipartisan, it was positive,” Republican Representative Joe Wilson, a leader of the House Ukraine caucus, told reporters.
Congress has approved nearly US$175 billion of aid and military assistance for Ukraine and allied nations in the 2-1/2 years since Russia began its full-scale invasion, and many lawmakers say they expect Washington will need to approve more money to help Kyiv within the next several months.
The visit was much lower-profile than previous trips to Congress. The Senate and House left Washington on Wednesday night until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Senator Dick Durbin said Zelenskyy had presented his plan for victory. “It’s pretty basic, and that is to make sure that the Ukrainians have the momentum going forward, and that requires not only personnel, but equipment and supplies to finish the job,” Durbin told reporters.
Ukraine’s defense has largely received bipartisan support in the U.S., but his government has faced rising criticism from some Republican leaders, including Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump has criticized the Ukrainian president as he campaigns for the Nov. 5 election and, at least for now, turned down a request from Zelenskyy for a meeting.
The former president was critical of Zelenskyy on Wednesday, telling a campaign rally in North Carolina, “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelenskyy.”
Trump also blamed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic presidential opponent, for allowing Russia’s invasion.
Many congressional Republicans have been furious about Zelenskyy’s visit on Sunday to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden grew up. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into Zelenskiy’s trip.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican who did not meet Zelenskyy on Thursday, demanded that he fire his ambassador to Washington for planning the Scranton trip, although he told reporters this demand was not a threat to oppose military aid.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Juliia Dysa in Gdansk; Editing by William Mallard, Ros Russell and Nick Zieminski)
