By Michael Lee
President Biden plans to announce over $1 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.
The president will announce an additional $800 million in funding for Ukraine, which will be in addition to the $200 million that was announced on Saturday. The new funding will make the total assistance to Ukraine over $1 billion in just the span of a few days, bringing total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine over $1.2 billion within the past year.
The funding comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set Wednesday to deliver a remote address to Congress, during which he is expected to outline a list of equipment the Ukrainians feel they need to fend off the Russian invasion.
The New York Times reports that the list is not meant to be a replacement for Ukraine’s request for MiG fighter jets from Poland, an effort that has been stalled by the U.S. amid fears that it could serve to escalate tensions between NATO and Russia.
“The intelligence community has assessed that the transfer of MiG-29s may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters last week. “Therefore, we also assess the MiG-29s to Ukraine to be high-risk.”
Ukraine’s new request for assistance will include weapons that will help troops on the ground, such as Stinger missiles and anti-tank Javelin missiles. It may also include new assistance such as armed drones and communication jamming equipment.
Zelenskyy made a similar appeal to the Canadian Parliament on Tuesday, though he went a step further by making an appeal for Canadian lawmakers to push for a no fly-zone over Ukraine.
