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The United States will provide additional military funding totaling $2 billion to Ukraine and 18 other European countries deemed to face a Russian threat, President Biden’s administration announced Thursday.
The package will focus on long-term military assistance rather than ammunition and equipment that have been included in past aid packages, the administration said. Secretary of State Antony Brinken made the announcement Thursday morning, shortly after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced a separate $675 million military equipment package for Ukraine.
Austin is in Germany and has meetings with the Ukrainian Defense Liaison Group through Thursday. This package includes more traditional military aids such as artillery, Humvees and armored ambulances.
Together, these two packages bring the total US military aid to Ukraine to over $15 billion since President Biden took office.
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The parcels arrived amid heavy fighting around Ukraine’s Zaporzhiya nuclear power plant, which Russian forces had taken over in the first weeks of the invasion.
UN officials say both countries are complaining of factory disasters. A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspected the facility this week and found extensive artillery damage. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of damaging facilities.
“The first important safety pillar that exists in a nuclear facility is not to violate its physical integrity.” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Tuesday. “And unfortunately… this happened. Any physical attack that could be assessed is simply unacceptable.
Grossi went on to press for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant. Ukraine called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed at the facility to secure such zones.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.