Blinken comments on $2.8 billion support for Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv as the Biden administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2.8 billion for Ukraine and other European countries.

In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Blinken said the Biden administration had notified Congress of its intent to provide $2.2 billion in long-term military financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners.

The new U.S. military financing is on top of a $675 million package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced earlier Thursday at a conference in Ramstein, Germany.

Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of the $2.2 billion will go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the State Department said.