The News
The White House pledged a $425 million security aid package for Ukraine Wednesday following a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The new package includes “additional air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs,” the White House said in a statement. The package comes just weeks after Biden promised aid worth an estimated $8 billion to Ukraine.
Writing on social media, Zelenskyy thanked Biden, adding that the package included “long-range weapons,” although the Ukrainian leader did not mention Kyiv’s ongoing push to get Western countries to allow such weapons to be used to strike inside Russia. Moscow has warned if Ukraine does use Western long-range weapons to strike Russia, it would put the country “at war” with the US and NATO.
The White House’s announcement came hours after Zelenskyy partially unveiled his “victory plan” to win the war against Russia to Ukrainian lawmakers, having privately presented it to Biden during his US visit last month.