US to send additional $2 billion in Ukraine aid, Blinken says

(NEW YORK) — The United States will provide an additional $2 billion in aid to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday during a press conference in Kyiv with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

The foreign military financing will be used not only for purchasing weapons from the U.S., but also by Ukraine as it invests in manufacturing its own machinery and weapons, Blinken said. Ukraine will also use some of the funding to purchase weapons from other countries, he said.

“All of this — in particular as we think about the defense industrial base — builds on an incredible spirit of innovation, of ingenuity, of entrepreneurship that we see here in Ukraine,” Blinken said.

The deal for the latest aid comes as Russian forces increase their assaults along the front lines in northern and eastern Ukraine.

Blinken on Wednesday said the United States is “rushing” much of the military aid in the $60 billion package President Joe Biden approved in April.

“The $60 billion supplemental, we know, is coming at a critical time,” he said. “Ukraine is facing this renewed brutal Russian onslaught, and we see again senseless strikes on civilians and residential buildings.”