The head of the US Department of State’s Interagency Assistance Department, Daphne Rand, has confirmed that Washington intends to provide Ukraine with an additional $9.9bn in budget support.
“The U.S. has provided $13 billion in budget support to the government of Ukraine, and we are working with Congress to provide another $9.9 billion in the coming months,” Rand told reporters.
She added that Washington “remains committed to working with the government of Ukraine to maintain its operational capacity and provide additional budget support as needed.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the U.S. government is working to have Congress approve an additional $10 billion military aid package for Ukraine.
The newspaper noted that the next military aid package is expected to be announced next week, almost simultaneously with the announcement of additional sanctions against Russia.
At the same time, the newspaper wrote that a number of U.S. officials who visited Ukraine recently told Kiev that despite promises to support Ukraine “as long as necessary,” Washington expects to use the aid already provided more effectively.
Rand did not say what was planned to be included in the new aid package to Kiev. At the same time, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on the sidelines of a contact group meeting on Ukraine’s defense in Brussels that the West’s current urgent task is to provide Kiev with air defense equipment.
“We know that Russia has a significant number of aircraft and a lot of capacity,” he told reporters. – That’s why we stressed that we need to do everything in our power to provide Ukraine with as much air defense capability as possible.”
