President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Dec. 21 that the United States is sending $1.8 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, including, for the first time, a patriot air defense system.
The announcement came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, landed in Washington with plans to appeal to Biden and Congress not to stop giving aid to his country as it battles Russian forces in the 10th month of the war.
Biden approved the $1 billion drawdown of air defense and other military equipment. An additional $800 million in security assistance through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
The drawdown “will provide Ukraine with expanded air defense and precision-strike capabilities, as well as additional munitions and critical equipment that Ukraine is using so effectively to defend itself on the battlefield,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a Biden appointee, said in a statement, adding that the help would come as Russia “is trying to weaponize winter by freezing and starving Ukrainian civilians and forcing families from their homes.”…