United States President Joe Biden has announced that his administration will send nearly $2.5bn in military assistance to Ukraine, as the president rushes aid to the war-torn country before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The new round of assistance, announced on Monday, includes $1.25bn derived from presidential drawdown authority, which allows Biden to withdraw materials from US military supplies without the need for congressional approval.
Another $1.22bn comes from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a programme run through the Department of Defense and funded by congressional appropriations.
In addition to the military aid, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen also unveiled $3.4bn in economic assistance on Monday to help Ukraine’s government and prop up its infrastructure.
“I’ve directed my administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Biden said in a statement. “At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office.”
Since February 2022, Ukraine has sought to repel a full-scale invasion from Russia. But in the years since the war erupted, Republicans have grown increasingly fractured over providing future aid to the country.
That aid is likely to face its greatest test yet in the new year. In January, the Republican Party is set to take control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
While Biden, a Democrat, has been a firm supporter of continued US assistance to Ukraine, President-elect Trump has signalled scepticism about further aid and expressed his desire to bring the war to a speedy close. He campaigned on an “America First” policy platform.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Biden on Monday for the latest US assistance package, which comes at a vital time for his country.
Ukraine faces manpower shortages and straining national morale after nearly three years of fighting. Russian forces also continue to make advances in eastern Ukraine: On Sunday, for instance, Russia claimed it had seized the village of Novotroitske.
Since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the US Defense Department says that the Biden administration has committed more than $65bn in support.
As part of that sum, Biden has delivered 23 aid packages from USAI funds. Monday’s announcement also marks the 73rd “tranche of equipment” Biden has drawn from Defense Department inventories since August 2021.
“Every act of solidarity from our partners saves lives, strengthens our independence, and reinforces our resilience. It also demonstrates that democracies are stronger than autocratic aggressors,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the social media site X.
Monday’s weapons package will include drones, guided missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), antitank weapons systems, air-to-ground munitions and spare parts, according to the Defense Department.
Support for such assistance remains high. A November poll by the Pew Research Center found that 25 percent of Americans believe the US is sending the right amount of assistance to Ukraine, and 18 percent say it is not sending enough.
By contrast, 27 percent of survey respondents indicated that too much assistance is being sent to Ukraine.
That number increased among people affiliated with the Republican Party, when taken in isolation. An estimated 42 percent of Republicans told the Pew Center the US was sending too much aid. Just 19 percent indicated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a threat to the US.
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