Blinken pledges $700M in aid to Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced over $700 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine on Wednesday while visiting Kyiv.

The State Department said the assistance will “continue to support Ukraine and its people against Russia’s war of aggression,” according to a press release.

The aid package includes $325 million to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, approximately $290 million in humanitarian assistance and over $103 million to “address landmines and unexploded ordnance left behind by Russia’s forces,” according to the release.

On Wednesday, Blinken met with both U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy, Blinken and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a readout from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

“Secretary Blinken reiterated the United States’ enduring support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s war of aggression,” Miller said of the meeting, which he said occurred in Ukraine. “The three reviewed upcoming diplomatic engagements, including at the UN General Assembly in New York, and discussed the importance of nations across the world supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the principles of the UN Charter.”

Zelensky said in a Wednesday post on the social platform X that he had “a very substantive and long conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken @SecBlinken and UK Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy, during which we discussed all key issues.”

“It is important that Ukrainian arguments are heard. This includes the long-range weapons, the supply of combat brigades on the front lines, and the overall strategy for achieving a just peace,” Zelensky wrote in the X post.

Blinken’s aid announcement follows a Monday letter in which top House Republicans pushed President Biden to go back on a policy restricting Ukraine from using American-made weapons to strike far into Russia.