On Saturday, the Biden administration prepared a $988 million aid package of arms and equipment to support the Ukrainians that are struggling against the Russian Invasion.
The package halved the remaining $2.21 billion of funds in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, as the president committed to purchasing weapons from its domestic industry, rather than pulling out from the national inventory.
According to the Pentagon, the new package will mainly consist of ammunition for Lockheed Martin’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and other equipment and spare parts.
The announcement came during the annual Reagan National Defense Forum meeting in California between the defense industry and policymakers on Saturday.
However, Joe Biden still has around $6 billion of presidential drawdown authority, including funds authorized by the Congress in 2024 and funds discovered from overestimating the value of weapons sent to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump urged on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and negotiation between two warring countries to end the conflict, suggesting both governments list their terms and conditions.
Trump’s request came after meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in their first face-to-face talk after the U.S. election, in which Trump promised to end the war within 24 hours, although he has yet to provide any detail.
Trump wrote on his social media that Zelensky and Ukraine are ready to make a deal and end the war, as the nation suffered around 400,000 casualties, he also added that China could help in the negotiation with Russia as well.
Zelensky commented on Trump’s post on Sunday that any negotiated peace must not only be on paper but there needs to be a measure to guarantee an effective peace in the post-war period. He also emphasized that without guarantee, the conflict could reignite in the future, as Putin has done in the past.
Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov held a conference with reporters addressing Trump’s comments and said that Russia is open to negotiation, but it has to be based on an agreement reached in Istanbul in 2022 and the current state of the battlefield.
Putin said that the preliminary agreement between both opposing countries from talks in the first week of the conflict at Istanbul could serve as a starting point for future peace talks.
