Biden announces 'surge' in Ukraine aid, action to counter Russia

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. is providing Ukraine a total of $7.9 billion in defense aid, a commitment he described as a “surge in security assistance” that — coupled with expanded F-16 fighter jet pilot training and other newly unveiled moves — aims to bolster Kyiv before a new president enters the White House.

The announcement, which came ahead of Biden’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also included the provision of the medium-range Joint Standoff Weapon to equip the country’s F-16s, as well as an extra Patriot air defense battery and more Patriot missiles.

“Through these actions, my message is clear: The United States will provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war,” Biden said in a statement.

The majority of the aid — $5.5 billion of the $7.9 billion — won’t be translated into individual weapons packages immediately. Instead, Biden said he authorized the aid so it would not expire at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, leaving it available for the Defense Department to tap into through the remainder of his presidency.

The presidential drawdown authority extension was not included in the bipartisan stopgap funding measure that the Senate cleared Wednesday. Through the drawdown authority, weapons are transferred directly from DOD stockpiles overseas.

Separately, Biden directed $2.4 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds for the war effort, under which the U.S. buys weapons directly from industry rather than drawing down existing stockpiles. The funding would go toward additional air defenses, drones, air-to-ground munitions and more, the statement said.

After the announcement, $1.67 billion remains in the account for procuring new weapons for Ukraine, a Defense Department official said by email. Biden said he has called on the Pentagon to distribute “all of its remaining security assistance funding that has been appropriated for Ukraine by the end of my term in office.”

Biden also ordered the Pentagon to train an additional 18 of Ukraine’s F-16 fighter pilots next year, and he pledged to convene a more than 50-country meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany in October to coordinate widespread support for Kyiv.

He also said the U.S. is acting to “disrupt a global cryptocurrency network, in coordination with international partners” as a means of countering Russia’s sanctions evasion and money laundering tactics.

The announcement, however, notably excludes something Zelenskyy — and U.S. lawmakers — have been vocally advocating: an easing of U.S. restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons to strike targets deeper in Russian territory.

The White House has feared that approving the use of U.S.- and other Western-provided weapons to strike Russian targets could escalate the war.

The strike restrictions apply to Kyiv’s use of weapons such as ATACMS, supersonic tactical ballistic missiles designed and manufactured in the U.S., as well as the Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missile.

British Defense Secretary John Healey, who met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in London this week, said at a Thursday news conference that the two officials’ conversations on Ukraine were largely about getting behind the so-called “victory plan” Zelenskyy is pitching that lays out his vision for victory in the war with Russia.

He also emphasized the need to “reinforce the Ukrainians’ position in the months ahead, in the face of a continuing onslaught from the Russians on the eastern border.”

But Healy sidestepped a question about whether he spoke with Austin about lifting the ban on Storm Shadow missiles striking deeper inside of Russia and whether the U.K. would grant Kyiv permission to do so without American approval.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters after a senators’ meeting with Zelenskyy in the Capitol that if Biden does not decide “this week” to allow Ukraine to strike targets deeper inside Russia, then the effect on Ukraine’s war effort will be to “doom them to lose.”

Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are behind a bipartisan push for a new Ukraine supplemental spending bill that supporters hope to see become law by year’s end.

Asked Thursday if he still plans to support a Ukraine supplemental in the lame-duck session, Graham said a changed military strategy by the west is more important than additional weapons.

“I’m not going to throw good money after bad,” he said.

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(John M. Donnelly contributed to this report.)

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