In a final push ahead of the incoming Trump administration, the Biden White House plans to announce an additional $1.25 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
The large package of aid includes numerous munitions, including those for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. The package will also include Stinger missiles, as well as 155 and 105 mm artillery rounds.
According to the Associated Press, officials plan to make the announcement on Monday.
Biden announced earlier this month a $988 million aid package to Ukraine to ensure it “has the tools it needs to prevail in its fight against Russian aggression.” The recent funding follows that.
“The administration has made its choice. So has a bipartisan coalition in Congress. “The next administration must make its own decision,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin previously stated in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. “But, from this library, from this podium, I am confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security and human freedom.”
The Biden administration has pledged to provide as much aid to Ukraine as possible before Trump takes office in January.
During the campaign, President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance sharply criticized the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Trump also stated that he would end the war before taking office, without providing further details. Vance suggested earlier this year that the best way to end the war would be for Ukraine to cede the land seized by Russia and establish a demilitarized zone, a proposal that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flatly rejected.
Since the campaign trial, Trump has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a ceremony commemorating the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Saturday, following a devastating fire there in 2019.
The administration’s latest announcement marks the 22nd aid package through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Earlier in December, House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the administration’s request that Congress authorize an additional $24 billion in funding.
“It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision right now,” Johnson previously stated. “We have a newly elected president, and we will wait and follow the new commander-in-chief’s lead on all of this. So, I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come through right now.”
