UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky today thanked Washington for its support during a visit from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken amid fears of Russian aggression towards its neighbour.

“I would like to thank you personally, and President Biden and the US administration for your support, for military assistance to Ukraine, for increasing this assistance,” Zelensky told Blinken.

The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv over recent years had allocated the maximum possible sums of money to bolster its military capacity. 

“All the same, we understand that to take steps quickly to modernise the army, we need help, especially in these times, in difficult times,” he added.

A senior US official said earlier today that President Joe Biden’s administration “last month approved the provision of US$200 million (RM838 million) in additional defensive security assistance to our Ukrainian partners”.

Before Russia’s troop movements to Ukraine’s borders late last year, the Biden administration had delivered US$450 million in military aid to the country.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said it is ready to help Ukraine militarily, the culmination of a decade-long shift by the United States which previously worried about angering Russia. – AFP, January 19, 2022.