Biden administration announces $45M in humanitarian aid for Ukraine

The Biden administration on Thursday announced that it is sending $45 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine following Wednesday’s White House meeting between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new assistance will go toward supporting roughly 3.4 million people in need in Ukraine, including Ukrainians who have been displaced by Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.

“This assistance will help provide lifesaving food, shelter, home heating materials, essential health care, including mental health and psychosocial support, and safe drinking water,” Blinken said in a statement. “Our funding will also help our partners maintain contact between family members who have been separated due to the conflict, including reunification in some cases.”

With Thursday’s announcement, the U.S. will have provided more than $350 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine since 2014, the year Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. 

Biden and Zelensky met for almost two hours in the Oval Office on Wednesday to discuss Russian aggression and other regional and bilateral issues.

“The United States remains firmly committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression,” Biden said at the outset of the meeting, which was Zelensky’s first visit to meet a U.S. president since being elected in 2019.

In addition to the new humanitarian assistance, the Biden administration announced plans to send $60 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including additional Javelin anti-armor systems. The U.S. and Ukraine also announced a revamped Strategic Partnership Commission, a new strategic defense framework to include cyber and intelligence cooperation and a climate and energy dialogue.