The United States announced $8 billion in new aid for Ukraine as President Joe Biden prepared to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks Thursday at the White House.
Biden said in a statement the aid includes a Patriot missile battery and missiles, as well as air-to-ground munitions and a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers.
The United States is also expanding training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots to include an additional 18 pilots next year.
“For nearly three years, the United States has rallied the world to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom from Russian aggression, and it has been a top priority of my Administration to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to prevail,” Biden said in a statement.
Zelenskyy quickly thanked the U.S., saying the new aid included “the items that are most critical to protecting our people.”
“We will use this assistance in the most efficient and transparent manner to achieve our major common goal: victory for Ukraine, just and lasting peace, and transatlantic security,” Zelenskyy said on X.
The Ukrainian leader said earlier that at the White House meeting he would discuss his plans for winning the war against Russia.
Among the expected topics is Ukraine’s request for weapons donors to allow Ukrainian forces to use the weapons to strike targets deeper inside Russia. Ukrainian leaders say such strikes are needed to degrade Russia’s ability to carry out its daily missile and drone attacks.
Zelenskyy said he and Biden talked Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, during which Zelenskyy thanked Biden for U.S. support for Ukraine and gave an update on the situation on the front lines.
Meanwhile, former U.S. president Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that the situation in Ukraine is the fault of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for pledging military assistance to Ukraine instead of pushing Ukrainian leaders to cede territory to Russia.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said.
Trump argued that Ukraine should have made concessions to Moscow before Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said.
The former U.S. leader questioned what position Ukraine has now to negotiate an end to the war.
“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” Trump said. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”
Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down 66 of 78 Russian drones launched in overnight attacks, along with all four guided missiles fired by Russian forces.
The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia regions, the military said.
Officials in Kyiv said Thursday that Ukrainian air defenses shot down about a dozen Russian drones overnight, with falling debris causing a fire at a residential building and damaging a gas pipeline.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, two drones over the Kursk region and another drone over Bryansk.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor of Belgorod, said one person was killed in a drone attack that struck a car.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
