The Pentagon announced Saturday a new $988 million aid package for Ukraine, including new arms and equipment for use in its ongoing war with Russia.
The Pentagon said the money from the package will be put toward buying ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which are made by Lockheed Martin. Other items in the package include drones, equipment and spare artillery parts used for maintenance.
The aid package almost halves the more than $2 billion available through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which aims to further buy weapons for Ukraine rather than taking from American weapon stocks, as Reuters reported.
The announcement comes as President Joe Biden’s administration enters its final days and as President-elect Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Saturday, with Zelenskyy calling the talk “good and productive” in a tweet posted Saturday afternoon.
“President Trump is, as always, resolute. I thank him,” Zelenskyy said in the post. “We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way … We agreed to continue working together and keep in contact. Peace through strength is possible.”
The news came as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke Saturday in front of defense industry leaders and policymakers at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
Since the start of the war in 2022, the United States has given more than $62 billion to Ukraine in security assistance, according to Reuters.
Contributing: Reuters
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
