WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce more than $8 billion worth of military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington, two U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been engaged in urgent discussions with Congress to allow it to use up $5.6 billion in military aid for Ukraine before Sept. 30 - the end of the federal fiscal year - when the authority was set to expire.

On Thursday, U.S. officials said, the White House intends to notify Congress it will move forward with the announcement of a $5.6 billion drawdown from U.S. weapons stocks. The contents of that package are still in flux, the officials said.

Reuters reported this month that the Biden administration was considering a backup plan under which it would announce plans for shipments for Ukraine, but with an extended delivery timeline for the weapons and equipment, allowing for a more gradual transfer of resources to Ukraine without missing the Sept. 30 deadline.

A second announcement slated for Thursday will be for $2.4 billion worth of aid under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative program, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies rather than pull them from U.S. stocks.

That aid will include munitions, weapons to combat drones and material to support munitions production in Ukraine, one of the U.S. officials said.

In addition, the U.S. announced on Wednesday $375 million worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine. The package will include the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 81 miles (130 km) called the Joint Standoff Weapon, two U.S. officials said. The inclusion of that weapon was not disclosed in the announcement.

  • @BuffaloxEnglish
    5•3 months ago

    As a relatively nearby neighbor to these events, I’ve been following developments from before the war even started. I admit I was shocked USA was right, and Putin did in fact invade Ukraine.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/14/world/europe/russia-ukraine-putin-cease-fire.html

    Mr. Putin’s new announcement stipulates that Ukraine effectively surrender huge swaths of land it now controls to Moscow, including the capitals of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

    This is merely for a cease fire Putin actually wants!!! And still he demands Ukraine hand over Kherson!! Together with remaining parts of 4 regions Ukraine currently control.
    Putin is completely delusional about his standing,

    Kyiv has said that Russia must withdraw its troops from all of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.

    Which is of course perfectly reasonable by Ukraine, but Putin is nowhere near giving up Crimea.
    To claim any 3rd party nation has had any obstructive effect in these talks not taking place is ridiculous.

    Other source:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/14/vladimir-putin-demands-war-ukraine/

    Regarding the demand that Zelenskyj step down, I can’t fin direct links to them, as I’m overwhelmed with more recent news in my search. But it’s inherent in the rhetoric of Putin like for instance this speech from 2022:

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67828

    The next point: “The supreme representative bodies of power of the USSR republics can challenge and suspend the operation of the USSR Government’s resolutions and directives in their territory.”

    It does require some broader knowledge, like Putin is trying to rebuild the USSR. But Putin claim Ukraine is part of Russia, despite they entered USSR as an independent country, and when USSR collapsed, Ukraine went back to their former status. Putins claim on Ukraine is based on falsification of historical events. But Putin is KGB/FSB, so he deals in misinformation when it benefit his goals.

    Another reason for the Russian invasion is large deposits of gas and oil in Ukraine, and Putin probably tried to prevent having to compete with Ukraine on the lucrative gas exports to Europe.