Biden administration to announce $725M weapons package to Ukraine months before Trump is sworn in
More US anti-tank weapons, artillery, drones are heading to Ukraine, official says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Biden administration is unveiling a $725 million weapons package for Ukraine this afternoon, a U.S. official tells Fox News.
The move comes less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
This package will include anti-tank weapons, artillery, drones, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and anti-personnel land mines to slow Russia's advances in the Kursk region, the official said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have railed against the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, and on the campaign trail, the former president said he would bring an end to the war before even entering office.
President Biden, right, listens as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Sept. 26. (AP/Susan Walsh)
However, Trump has yet to detail how he will do this.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vance made headlines earlier this year after he suggested that the best way to end the war was for Ukraine to cede the land Russia has seized and for a demilitarized zone to be established, a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flatly rejected.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is urging NATO leaders gathering for a meeting in Brussels this week to invite the country to join the Western military alliance.
UKRAINE IS PUSHING FOR A NATO INVITATION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands after signing a security agreement on the sidelines of the G-7 on June 13 in Savelletri, Italy. (AP/Alex Brandon)
"We believe that the invitation should be extended at this stage," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha recently said in a letter to NATO leaders, which was obtained by Reuters.
"It will become the Allies' adequate response to Russia's constant escalation of the war it has unleashed, the latest demonstration of which is the involvement of tens of thousands of North Korean troops and the use of Ukraine as a testing ground for new weapons," he added.
Last Friday, Zelenskyy also used an interview on Sky News to up the public pressure for NATO leaders to extend his country a membership offer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Ukrainian serviceman of the mobile air defense unit sits behind an anti-UAV machine gun tracking Russian drones in the sky during night patrol on Dec. 2 in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Maksym Kishka/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," he reportedly said.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.