WASHINGTON — The U.S. will send Ukraine another $2 billion in security assistance, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday night.
The package, to be issued under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, will build on previous efforts to aid Ukrainian defenses against Russia.
Sullivan confirmed the new assistance during a CNN Town Hall with U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power.
The initiative is intended to finance contracts with delivery dates months or even years away to bolster the nation’s long-term security needs, not for immediate battlefield use.
Sullivan added that President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had “deep conversations about precisely what kinds of capacities and what kind of training Ukraine needs to be successful in this effort to take back the territory.”
Ukraine has asked repeatedly for fighter jets, which the U.S. has been wary of providing because of the risk of provoking Russia. Sullivan said the two presidents had discussed F-16 warplanes.
“F-16s are not a question for the short-term fight,” Sullivan said. “F-16s are a question for the long-term defense of Ukraine, and that’s a conversation that President Biden and President Zelenskyy had.”
Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. also plans to announce “sweeping sanctions against key sectors that generate revenue” for Russia, including the country’s banking, defense, and technology industries.
Since fiscal 2022, the Pentagon has received $18.3 billion in congressional appropriations through Jan. 31 for Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative contracts. The Pentagon has awarded $2.9 billion in contracts, including $1.3 billion to Raytheon Technologies Corp. for the NASAMS air defense system.
(Justin Sink contributed to this report.)
