Blinken: US to send additional $2bn in Ukraine aid

May 15, 2024 - 22:58

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 US, 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.

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.

Russia has repeatedly warned the West that supplying weapons to Ukraine prolongs the conflict.