The US announced the final aid package for Ukraine under Mr. Biden

“I would like to announce an additional aid package worth 500 million USD for Ukraine, including missiles for air defense systems, air-to-ground weapons and equipment to support the F-16 fighter squadron,” said the Minister of National Defense. US Department of Defense Lloyd Austin said at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting in Germany on January 9.

This will be the last aid package the US grants to Ukraine under President Joe Biden, announced 10 days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The aid package is deployed under the Presidential Resource Adjustment Authority (PDA), a law that allows the US government to directly withdraw weapons from storage to transfer to partners in an emergency without congressional approval.

Pentagon officials previously revealed to Reuters that Washington cannot disburse all available resources to support Kiev before Mr. Trump begins his term. “There will be more than two billion dollars left in PDA after January 20,” an official said.

Speaking at UDGC the same day, President Zelensky called on allies to deploy soldiers to Ukraine, saying this is “one of the best ways to force Russia towards peace”. He did not specify whether Western forces in Ukraine would directly participate in the war or perform peacekeeping missions.

According to the original plan, President Biden was scheduled to meet his counterpart Zelensky in Italy on January 10. However, on January 8, the White House announced that Mr. Biden had canceled his schedule to focus on monitoring the forest fire situation in California.

The US is the largest aid donor to Ukraine after the conflict broke out, with support of up to 175 billion USD. However, Ukraine only received directly 106 billion USD, including 69.8 billion USD in military aid, 33.3 billion USD in financial support and 2.8 billion USD in humanitarian aid.

The remaining amount is spent on related US activities and a small part is used to support affected countries in the region.

President-elect Trump once vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours after taking office, but did not specify specific measures. He has repeatedly criticized US aid packages for Ukraine, raising concerns about the possibility of Washington cutting support after President Biden leaves office.