The United States has announced up to an additional $350 million to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday the new aid package “will include further lethal defensive assistance to help Ukraine address the armored, airborne, and other threats it is now facing,” according to a statement from the State Department.
“Today, as Ukraine fights with courage and pride against Russia’s brutal and unprovoked assault, I have authorized, pursuant to a delegation by the President, an unprecedented third Presidential Drawdown of up to $350 million for immediate support to Ukraine’s defense,” the statement added. “This brings the total security assistance the United States has committed to Ukraine over the past year to more than $1 billion.”
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The additional aid will fund “anti-armor, small arms and various munitions, body armor, and related equipment in support of Ukraine’s front-line defenders facing down Russia’s unprovoked attack,” bringing the total security assistance provided to Ukraine to $1 billion in the last year, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
“We, along with our Allies and partners, are standing together to continue to expedite security assistance to Ukraine, and are employing all available security cooperation tools in support of the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against Russian aggression,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added.
Many Western countries are coming to Ukraine’s assistance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to “ban” the “passage of Russian warships to the Black Sea,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday while thanking the leader for the “significant military and humanitarian support.”
Italy’s government said it would support expelling Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, also known as SWIFT, which is the main system that facilitates crossborder financial transactions and money transfers, while Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Saturday his country wouldn’t block such a move, according to CNN.
A day earlier, the Biden administration announced more sanctions, which will target Russian President Vladimir Putin specifically, following a string of economic penalties placed on the Russian financial system, Kremlin elites, and the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline amid the invasion. The European Union and the United Kingdom also announced Friday that they would freeze Putin’s assets and those of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The U.S., however, has opted not to push for Russia’s expulsion from SWIFT, with Biden arguing recently: “The sanctions that we’ve proposed on all their banks are of equal consequence, maybe more consequence, than SWIFT, No. 1. No. 2, it is always an option, but right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.”
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Putin has not backed off, daring Biden to go further. A senior defense official told reporters on Thursday that Russia was making a “move” on Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and that the goal was about “decapitating” the government.
Despite the Russians’ efforts, the official noted Friday that soldiers had been met with more resistance than expected. Ukraine has claimed it caused nearly 3,000 casualties among Russian troops in just the first day of fighting, in addition to causing substantive damage to Russian supplies.
