WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a final push before the Trump administration takes office, the Biden White House is set to announce an additional $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. This significant aid package includes munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system, as well as Stinger missiles and 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds.
The announcement, expected on Monday, follows a recent $988 million aid package to Ukraine announced by President Joe Biden earlier this month. The aim is to ensure Ukraine has the necessary tools to combat Russian aggression.
“This administration has made its choice. And so has a bipartisan coalition in Congress. The next administration must make its own choice,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. He expressed confidence that President Reagan would have supported Ukraine, American security, and human freedom.
Earlier in December, House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a request by the Biden administration for Congress to authorize $24 billion in additional funding. “It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now,” Johnson said. “We have a newly elected president, and we’re going to wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that. So, I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now.”
The Biden administration has been committed to providing Ukraine with as much aid as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. During the campaign, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance heavily criticized the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion. Trump claimed he would end the war before even taking office, though he did not provide further details. Vance suggested that Ukraine should cede the land Russia has seized and establish a demilitarized zone, a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected.
Since the campaign, Trump met with Zelenskyy at a ceremony commemorating the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which had been devastated by a fire in 2019.
This latest announcement marks the Biden administration’s 22nd aid package through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. As the transition of power approaches, the future of U.S. support for Ukraine remains uncertain, with the incoming administration expected to