Biden rushes aid to Ukraine ahead of Trump return
The White House plans to rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, sources said on Wednesday, hoping to shore up the government in Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“The administration plans to push forward … to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible” a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity, before its term ends in January. Trump has been critical of Biden’s assistance for Ukraine, fueling concern about the future of support for President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly the House of Representatives. The House has been narrowly controlled by Republicans since January 2023, and it was not clear by Wednesday afternoon whether the party had won enough seats in Tuesday’s elections to keep Democrats from winning a slim majority.
The Republican-controlled House last approved aid for Ukraine, including the authority for Biden to transfer billions of dollars in weapons from US stocks, in April — eight months after Biden first asked for additional aid, with the support of more Democrats than Republicans. Of the weapons transfer authority passed in April, $4.3 billion remains, in addition to $2.8 billion worth of transfers lawmakers approved in previous spending measures and $2 billion in funding for the purchase of new weapons from industry. In total, that $9 billion in military assistance would be a significant boost to Ukraine’s stores.
