TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Biden approves $350 million in military aid for Ukraine
In a memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden directed that $350 million allocated through the Foreign Assistance Act be designated for Ukraine's defense.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
US President Joe Biden signs the “Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
P
resident Joe Biden instructed the US State Department to release $350 million in military aid to Ukraine on Friday as it struggles to repulse a Russian invasion.
In a memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden directed that $350 million allocated through the Foreign Assistance Act be designated for Ukraine's defense.
On Friday, Biden joined an emergency NATO summit Friday to strengthen the frantic Western response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and fears for the security of Europe.
The US president, who has spent weeks trying to lead a united trans-Atlantic response to Russia's aggression against its neighbor, was meeting "with fellow NATO heads of state and government in an extraordinary virtual summit to discuss the security situation in and around Ukraine," the White House said.
The meeting, with Biden joining from the White House Situation Room, was not open to the media.
It came as Russian troops entered parts of the capital Kyiv after assaulting Ukraine from multiple directions and Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the ouster of the country's government.
Caught between wanting to resist Russia's blatant overturning of post-World War II European security norms and unwillingness to risk confrontation between the nuclear armed powers, NATO is walking a fine line in the face of what looks like a resurgence of the Cold War.
Ukraine is not part of NATO, but four neighboring countries are and the United States has rushed troops to the eastern flank to reassure allies jittery about Putin's broader intentions.
NATO also finds itself enmeshed in the conflict because it was Ukraine's longterm ambition of joining the alliance and the European Union -- in hopes of fully breaking free from Russian domination -- that in part prompted the Kremlin's decision to attack.
Biden has repeatedly said that Ukraine is nowhere near being able to join NATO and is also firm that US troops will not go there to help push back Russia.
