U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. is sending more anti-aircraft, anti-armor weapons and drones to Ukraine to assist in its defence against Russia.
The president’s comments came as he formally announced his administration was sending an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine.
The U.S. has now sent a total $2 billion in such aid to Kyiv since Biden took office more than a year ago.
About $1 billion in aid has been sent in just the last week.
“We’re going to give Ukraine the arms to fight and defend themselves through all the difficult days ahead,” Biden said.
Biden spoke hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a video address to members of U.S. Congress.
Zelenskiy made an impassioned plea for the U.S. and West to provide more help to save his young democracy than world leaders have so far pledged to provide.
Zelenskiy summoned the memory of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in appealing to the U.S. Congress to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
But he acknowledged the no-fly zone he has sought to “close the sky” to airstrikes on his country may not happen.
Livestreamed into the Capitol complex, Zelenskiy said the U.S. must sanction Russian lawmakers and block imports.
But rather than an enforced no-fly zone that the White House has resisted, he instead sought other military aid to stop the Russian assault.
For the first time in a public address to world leaders, he showed a packed auditorium of lawmakers a graphic video of the destruction and devastation his country has suffered in the war, along with heartbreaking scenes of civilian casualties.
“We need you right now,” Zelenskiy said. “I call on you to do more.”
Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation, before and after his short remarks, which Zelenskyy began in Ukrainian through an interpreter but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed.
