UNITED STATES NEWS

US announces nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support for Ukraine

Dec 7, 2024, 2:35 PM

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papi...

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan at the Pentagon, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — The United States will provide nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday as the Biden administration rushes to spend all the congressionally approved money it has left to bolster Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

The latest package will include more drones and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that the U.S. has provided. While these weapons are critically needed now, they will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term systems to be put on contract.

The weapon systems purchased are often intended to support Ukraine’s future military capabilities, not make an immediate difference on the battlefield.

The $1 billion package is on top of an additional $725 million in U.S. military assistance, including counter-drone systems and HIMARS munitions, announced Monday that would be drawn from the Pentagon’s stockpiles to more quickly get to the front lines.

Ukraine is facing an intensified onslaught by Russia, which is now using thousands of North Korean troops to augment its fight to take back the Kursk region. Moscow also has launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile and regularly strikes Kyiv’s civilian infrastructure.

With questions about whether Trump will maintain military support to Ukraine, the Biden administration has been trying to spend every dollar remaining from a massive foreign aid bill passed earlier this year to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible.

“This administration has made its choice. So has a bipartisan coalition in Congress. The next administration must make its own choice,” Austin said at an annual gathering of national security officials, defense firms and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Trump had a hastily arranged meeting Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and France’s Emmanuel Macron while in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Macron and other European leaders are trying to persuade Trump to maintain support for Ukraine.

Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has criticized U.S. aid for Ukraine and called for bringing a quick end to the war, raising concerns in Ukraine about what terms may be laid out for any future negotiations.

Austin said he was “confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security and human freedom.”

It was one of Austin’s last major speeches as President Joe Biden’s defense secretary and a cap to his more than 41 years serving as a soldier and general.

Under Austin’s watch, the Pentagon in 2022 launched a regular meeting that now counts more than 50 countries to figure out how to get the tens of millions of rounds of ammunition and billions of dollars in advanced weaponry to Ukraine. Without that flow of support, it’s possible the country would have fallen to Russia after it invaded in February 2022.

“Together, we have helped Ukraine survive an all-out assault by the largest military in Europe,” Austin said.

Before Saturday’s announcement, there was roughly $8 billion left to use to pull existing weapons out of U.S. stockpiles and to put additional weapons on contract to help Ukraine.

“We’re not going to stop Putin by telling Ukraine we aren’t going to give you anything more,” Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said at a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

Comments

Comment guidelines: No name-calling, personal attacks, profanity, or insults. Please keep the conversation civil and help us moderate comments by reporting abuse.
comments powered by Disqus

United States News

FILE - A lone home stands among residences levelled by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., on Tuesd...

Associated Press

‘Voice of the CDC’ resumes publication, but experts worry about what they’re not hearing

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal scientific publication on Thursday returned from a forced two-week hiatus with two papers examining the health effects of wildfires in Hawaii and California. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resumed the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which the Trump administration suspended as part of a “pause” on regulations, […]

18 minutes ago

Associated Press

Providence and hospital doctors reach tentative agreement in Oregon’s 27-day health care strike

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Providence and dozens of doctors at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, have reached a tentative agreement after 27 days of strike, bringing what has been described as the state’s largest health care strike closer to a potential end, depending on union ratification. The tentative agreement with hospital doctors and palliative care […]

40 minutes ago

FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 2...

Associated Press

House lawmakers push to ban AI app DeepSeek from US government devices

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan duo in the the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok. Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., on Thursday introduced the “No DeepSeek on Government […]

44 minutes ago

Incoming Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth speaks to reporters at the state Capitol in St. Paul o...

Associated Press

Democrats end boycott of Minnesota House after agreeing power-sharing deal with GOP

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota House Democrats returned to the state Capitol on Thursday after reaching a power-sharing agreement with Republicans, ending a stalemate that prevented the chamber from conducting official business for more than three weeks. Under the deal, House Republican leader Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, will be formally elected as speaker […]

1 hour ago

FILE - Immigrants from Venezuela are reflected in a marble wall while taking shelter at the Chicago...

Associated Press

Trump administration sues Chicago in latest crackdown on `sanctuary’ cities

CHICAGO (AP) — The Trump administration sued Chicago on Thursday alleging that ‘sanctuary’ laws in the nation’s third-largest city “thwart” federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. The lawsuit, which also names the state of Illinois, is the latest effort to crack down on places that limit cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police. It […]

1 hour ago

Associated Press

Thousands of Denver-area King Soopers grocery store workers go on strike

Some 10,000 grocery store workers across the greater Denver area went on strike Thursday, claiming unfair and illegal negotiating practices by King Soopers while their union has been negotiating a new contract with the store chain. Striking workers at 77 King Soopers stores in Denver and its suburbs, plus those in nearby Boulder and Louisville, […]

1 hour ago

Sponsored Articles

...

Collins Comfort Masters

Collins Comfort Masters: Your go-to plumbing experts in Arizona

Collins Comfort Masters, a trusted name in HVAC, water and plumbing since 1985, is you go-to plumbers for the residents of Phoenix and the Valley.

...

Fiesta Bowl Foundation

Join us for the 52nd annual Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Parade

The 52nd annual Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Parade presented by Lerner & Rowe returns on Saturday, December 28, at 10 a.m.

...

The UPS Store

How The UPS Store is giving back to the community

PHOENIX -- As 2024 nears a close, The UPS Store is looking to give back to the Arizona community with the holiday season approaching.

US announces nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support for Ukraine