In a final effort before the impending Trump administration, the Biden White House is preparing to unveil an additional $1.25 billion in military aid for Ukraine.
This extensive aid package includes a variety of weaponry, such as systems for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It will also provide Stinger missiles and artillery rounds in both 155 mm and 105 mm calibers.
The announcement is expected to be made on Monday, according to a report from the Associated Press.
This new funding follows President Biden’s earlier announcement this month of a $988 million aid package, aimed at ensuring Ukraine “has the tools it needs to prevail in its fight against 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 stated in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. “But, from this library, from this podium, I am confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security and human freedom.”
The Biden administration has been focused on providing as much assistance as possible to Ukraine before the transition to the Trump administration in January.
During his campaign, President-elect Trump, along with Vice President-elect JD Vance, strongly criticized the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Trump also claimed he would end the war before even taking office, though without providing specific details. Vance earlier this year proposed that the war could be ended by Ukraine giving up the territory Russia had taken, with a demilitarized zone being established—an idea that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected outright.
Since the campaign, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a ceremony marking the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Saturday, following the 2019 fire that devastated the building.
This announcement is the 22nd aid package from the Biden administration under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Earlier in December, House Speaker Mike Johnson declined a request from the administration for Congress to approve an additional $24 billion in funding.
“It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now,” Johnson said previously. “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.”

{Matzav.com}