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Ukraine has received a multimillion-dollar boost from the US after a £265million ($325million) military aid package for the European nation was offered up on Thursday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington on Thursday and given a major financial boost by US President Joe Biden.
According to US officials, the aid package includes air defense capabilities, cluster munitions, anti-tank weapons, and other equipment.
This is the 47th set of equipment to be pulled from Pentagon inventories to aid Ukraine since August 2021. Under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, Biden can pull military equipment from US stocks and provide them to other nations.
In addition, Biden has asked Congress for £20billion ($24billion) to sustain American support for Ukraine.
Zelensky and Biden met at the White House on Thursday for their meeting in the Oval Office, which was attended by Zelensky’s military cabinet, as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
As Biden and Zelensky sat down for their meeting, Biden said to the Ukraine leader: “Your bravery has inspired the world.”
Biden added to Zelensky that the US was determined to show that “we stand with you.”
Kyiv was originally given a tranche of M864 155 millimeter artillery rounds two months ago, with the shells fired from NATO standard canons.
Washington will also send more Avenger short-range air defense systems to Kyiv, which use Stinger missiles.
Other items set to be received by Ukraine include TOW and AT4 anti-tank weapons, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and Javelin anti-tank missiles made by a joint venture between Lockheed (LMT.N) and RTX Corp.
Following the Oval Office meeting, Biden and Zelensky are set to attend a meeting in the East Room, where Vice President Kamala Harris will also be present.
Zelensky met with lawmakers earlier Thursday at the Capitol, where he asked for continued funding for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
The Ukraine president also met with a bipartisan group of House members Thursday morning and paid tribute to victims of 9/11 at the Pentagon memorial.
So far, the US has sent more than $40 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine.
The latest boost comes as Ukraine’s Armed Forces said it had successfully targeted a Russian airbase in Crimea last night.
In a statement on Telegram, the department added: “On the night of the 21st of September the Defense Forces of Ukraine carried out a combined attack on the military airfield of the occupiers near the city of Saka in the temporarily occupied Crimea.”
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