US to send Ukraine $275M in new weapons to bolster Kyiv before Trump

The Pentagon will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, U.S. officials said Tuesday, as the Biden administration rushes to do as much as it can to help Kyiv fight back against Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The latest tranche of weapons comes as worries grow about an escalation in the conflict, with both sides pushing to gain any advantage that they can exploit if Trump demands a quick end to the war — as he has vowed to do.

In rapid succession this week, President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the authority to fire longer-range missiles deeper into Russia and then Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons .

U.S. officials contend that Russia’s change in nuclear doctrine was expected, but Moscow is warning that Ukraine’s new use of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS , inside Russia on Tuesday could trigger a strong response.

One American official said the U.S. is seeing no indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not yet been made public.

Asked Tuesday if a Ukrainian attack with longer-range U.S. missiles could potentially trigger use of nuclear weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered affirmatively.

A U.S. official said Ukraine fired about eight ATACM missiles into Russia on Tuesday, and just two were intercepted. The official said the U.S. is still assessing the damage but that the missiles struck an ammunition supply location in Karachev, in the Bryansk region.

The weapons in the new package of aid for Ukraine include an infusion of air defense, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armor munitions and other equipment and spare parts, U.S. officials say.

The weapons will be provided through presidential drawdown authority , which allows the Pentagon quickly to pull supplies from its shelves to speed them to Ukraine’s front line.

Trump’s upcoming move to the White House has triggered a scramble by the Biden administration to ensure all the congressionally approved funding for Ukraine gets delivered and that Kyiv is in a strong position going into the winter.

The Biden administration would have to rush $7.1 billion in weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpiles to spend all of those funds before Trump is sworn in. That includes $4.3 billion from a foreign aid bill passed by Congress earlier this year and $2.8 billion still on the books in savings due to the Pentagon recalculating the value of systems sent.

Asked if the department can get that done before Jan. 20, when Trump takes office, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said officials are working to get Ukraine what it needs. She would not confirm the latest drawdown totals.

“We are committed to using that full authority that Congress has allotted to us,” Singh said. “The only way we can do that also is to make sure that our shelves are fully backfilled and stocked. So as our shelves continue to get stocked with equipment and capabilities that are needed, we draw down from those and send those to Ukraine.”

In addition to the weapons in the Pentagon drawdown, the State Department said Tuesday that it had authorized the sale to Ukraine of $100 million in unspecified defense equipment and services, including vehicle refurbishment, technical assistance, training and “other related elements of logistics and program support.” In contrast to the drawdown, the government of Ukraine will pay for these.

As part of the wider effort to boost Ukraine, the administration also is on track to disperse its portion of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine , backed by frozen Russian assets, before Biden leaves the White House, according to two senior administration officials.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly, said the U.S. and Ukraine are now in “advanced stages” in discussing terms of the loan and are looking to complete the process for the $20 billion portion of the mammoth loan that the U.S. is backing.

The goal is to get it done before the end of the year, one official said. The remaining $30 billion will come from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, among others.

Trump has criticized U.S. support for Ukraine and derided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “salesman” while also praising Putin and touting his good relationship with him. The president-elect has claimed — without explaining how — that he will end the war in Ukraine before his inauguration on Jan. 20, saying he will “get it resolved very quickly.”

Last week, when he addressed supporters from a golden ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump returned to that pledge but again offered little information before changing the subject.

“We’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s got to stop. Russia and Ukraine’s gotta stop,” he said.

He has suggested that Ukraine give up at least some of its Russian-occupied territory to settle the war, saying at a rally in late September that “if they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Michelle Price in New York City and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.

美国官员周二表示，五角大楼将向乌克兰提供至少价值 2.75 亿美元的新武器。拜登政府正抓紧时间，尽其所能帮助基辅在当选总统唐纳德·特朗普就职前对抗俄罗斯。

最新一批武器的到来，正值人们越来越担心冲突升级之际。双方都在努力获取任何可以利用的优势，以防特朗普要求迅速结束战争——正如他誓言要做的那样。

本周，美国总统乔·拜登迅速授权乌克兰向俄罗斯境内更远的地方发射远程导弹，随后俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京正式降低了使用核武器的门槛。

美国官员认为俄罗斯改变核战略是意料之中的，但莫斯科警告说，乌克兰周二在俄罗斯境内使用名为ATACMS的陆军战术导弹系统可能会引发强烈的反应。

一位美国官员表示，美国没有发现任何迹象表明俄罗斯准备在乌克兰使用核武器。由于援助方案尚未公开，这些美国官员要求匿名发言。

周二，当被问及乌克兰使用远程美国导弹发动攻击是否有可能引发核武器的使用时，克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫给出了肯定的回答。

一位美国官员称，乌克兰周二向俄罗斯发射了约8枚反潜巡航导弹，其中只有2枚被拦截。该官员表示，美国仍在评估损失，但导弹击中了布良斯克州卡拉乔夫市的一个弹药补给站。

美国官员表示，新一轮对乌克兰的援助武器包括大量防空物资，例如高机动性火箭炮系统（HIMARS）、155毫米和105毫米炮弹、“标枪”反装甲弹药以及其他设备和备件。

这些武器将通过总统撤军授权提供，该授权允许五角大楼迅速从仓库中调出物资，快速运往乌克兰前线。

特朗普即将入主白宫，这引发了拜登政府的紧急行动，以确保国会批准的所有对乌克兰的资金都能到位，并确保基辅在进入冬季之前处于有利地位。

拜登政府必须紧急从五角大楼的武器库中调拨价值71亿美元的武器，才能在特朗普宣誓就职前用完这笔资金。这其中包括国会今年早些时候通过的对外援助法案中的43亿美元，以及由于五角大楼重新计算已交付系统的价值而节省下来的28亿美元。

当被问及国防部能否在1月20日特朗普就职前完成撤军工作时，五角大楼发言人萨布丽娜·辛格表示，官员们正在努力满足乌克兰的需求。她拒绝透露最新的撤军总数。

辛格说：“我们致力于充分利用国会赋予我们的全部权力。而做到这一点的唯一途径就是确保我们的物资储备充足。因此，随着我们不断补充所需的设备和能力，我们会从中提取一部分运往乌克兰。”

除了五角大楼裁军计划中的武器外，美国国务院周二表示，已批准向乌克兰出售价值1亿美元的未指明国防装备和服务，包括车辆翻新、技术援助、培训以及“其他相关的后勤和项目支持”。与裁军计划不同的是，这笔款项将由乌克兰政府支付。

据两位高级政府官员透露，作为提振乌克兰的更广泛努力的一部分，美国政府也正按计划在拜登离开白宫之前，向乌克兰发放其应得的500亿美元贷款，该贷款由冻结的俄罗斯资产作担保。

这些未获授权公开评论的官员表示，美国和乌克兰目前在讨论贷款条款方面已进入“后期阶段”，并正在寻求完成美国担保的这笔巨额贷款中 200 亿美元的部分。

一位官员表示，目标是在年底前完成这项工作。剩余的300亿美元将来自欧盟、英国、加拿大和日本等国。

特朗普批评美国对乌克兰的支持，并嘲讽乌克兰总统泽连斯基是“推销员”，同时又赞扬普京，吹嘘自己与普京关系良好。这位候任总统声称——但并未解释如何实现——他将在1月20日就职前结束乌克兰战争，并表示他将“迅速解决这个问题”。

上周，特朗普在位于马阿拉歌庄园的金色宴会厅向支持者发表讲话时，再次重申了这一承诺，但在转移话题之前，他几乎没有提供任何信息。

“我们将全力以赴地处理俄罗斯和乌克兰的问题。这种事必须停止。俄罗斯和乌克兰之间的冲突必须停止，”他说。

他建议乌克兰至少放弃一部分被俄罗斯占领的领土以结束战争。他在9月下旬的一次集会上说：“如果他们达成了一项糟糕的协议，那也好得多。他们应该做出一些让步，这样每个人都能活下去，每栋建筑都能建成，每座塔楼都能再屹立2000年。”

美联社记者阿默·马德哈尼（巴西里约热内卢）、米歇尔·普莱斯（纽约市）和塔拉·科普（华盛顿）对本报道亦有贡献。