The Biden-Harris administration is shipping $425 million in military aid to Ukraine.
The deal, announced Wednesday, gives Ukraine “additional air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions,” according to a White House statement.
The statement broke down the aid as “hundreds of air defense interceptors, dozens of tactical air defense systems, additional artillery systems, significant quantities of ammunition, hundreds of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, and thousands of additional armored vehicles.”
On social media, critics noted that the need for aid is much closer to home.
🚨 🌎 📰 Biden announces $425 million security aid package for Ukraine!
Meanwhile in North Carolina: As temperatures drop in North Carolina, many people are living in tents, facing the threat of freezing to death. The lack of stable housing and extreme weather conditions pose… pic.twitter.com/qUVJnJRMBM
— PitunisWorld 🌎 (@ScMesab) October 16, 2024
The White House statement noted that next month, President Joe Biden will host a virtual meeting of leaders of nations backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia, saying “leaders will coordinate with international partners on additional assistance for Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram he spoke to Biden Wednesday about his five-point “victory plan” that was unveiled to parliament in a speech, according to Reuters.
“I proposed considering the possibility of joint weapons production,” he said. “We also discussed the importance of additional training for Ukrainian soldiers.”
Ukraine, he said, thanked the United States “for its readiness to help Ukraine strengthen its positions to compel Russia towards honest diplomacy.”
The speech came as Russia has ground its way deeper into Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
Ukrainian officials have issued an evacuation order for the northeastern city of Kupiansk, which has been the latest target of Russian troops.
Zelenskyy’s appearance was “necessary to boost the Ukrainian morale today,” Olexiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the National University of Kyiv, told the Times. “This speech is meant to send a political and psychological message to the Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy said his goal was to make it no longer feasible for Russia “to continue the war.”
Although North Korean soldiers have come to join in the war on Ukraine, according to Newsweek, within days of their arrival, 18 North Koreans had deserted posts about four miles from the border with Ukraine.
There have been reports that Russia would create a North Korean battalion to fight Ukraine.
