The Biden administration unveils a $725 million weapons package for Ukraine this afternoon, a US official tells Fox News.
The move comes less than two months early President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
This package includes anti-tank weapons, artillery, drones, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and anti-personnel landmines to slow Russia’s advance in the Kursk region, the official said.
Trump and newly elected Vice President JD Vance have gone on a rampage against the support of the Biden administration for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, and during the campaign the former president said he would end the war before even coming to power.
President Biden, right, listens as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on September 26. (AP/Susan Walsh)
However, Trump has not yet said how he will do this.
Vance made headlines earlier this year after suggesting that the best way to end the war would be for Ukraine to cede the land Russia seized and for a demilitarized zone to be established, a proposal that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected outright.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is urging NATO leaders to gather for a meeting in Brussels this week to invite the country to join the Western military alliance.
UKRAINE PUSHES FOR A NATO INVITATION
President Biden (right) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands after signing a security agreement on the sidelines of the G-7 on June 13 in Savelletri, Italy. (AP/Alex Brandon)
“We believe that the invitation should be extended at this stage,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said recently in a letter to NATO leaders, obtained by Reuters.
“It will be the allies’ adequate response to the continued escalation of the war unleashed by Russia, the latest demonstration of which is the involvement of tens of thousands of North Korean troops and the use of Ukraine as a testing ground for new weapons.” he added.
Last Friday, Zelenskyy also used an interview on Sky News to increase public pressure on NATO leaders to make his country a membership offer.
A Ukrainian soldier from the Mobile Air Defense Unit sits behind an anti-UAV machine gun and tracks Russian drones in the sky during night patrol on December 2 in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Maksym Kishka/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we must bring the territory of Ukraine under our control under the NATO umbrella,” he reportedly said.
Caitlin McFall and Breanne Deppisch of Fox News contributed to this report.
