Arms and ammunition stocks in Ukraine are stable for now, but the Kiev Armed Forces have serious problems with manpower, CNN reported, citing US officials.
The Biden administration announced the last tranche of military aid that it will send to Ukraine, amounting to about $ 500 million. The outgoing White House wants to give Ukraine the greatest possible advantage before starting negotiations with the aggressor Russia.
The latest military aid package includes air defense missiles, air-to-ground ammunition and equipment for the F-16 fighter jets used by Ukraine. Biden was scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome on Friday, but the White House announced late Wednesday that it was canceling the trip because of the California wildfires.
According to CNN sources in Washington and Kiev, talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in the first half of 2025.
Senior Trump officials hope to find a peaceful resolution to the war within "100 days of Trump taking office." It is still unclear what Trump's strategy will be for ending the war in Ukraine.
The Joe Biden administration has provided Ukraine with more than $65 billion in aid since the start of the full-scale war, which Putin launched in February 2022. It will soon be three years since the invasion.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov established cooperation in key areas with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin within the framework of the meeting of the Contact Group on Defense Issues of Ukraine (the so-called “Rammstein“ group), Ukrinform reported, referring to Umerov's post on “Facebook“, BTA reported.
“I held an important meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, during which we discussed preparations for the meeting and cooperation in key areas,“ he wrote. According to Umerov, today the leaders of the group will approve roadmaps for each of the eight areas of cooperation, which will set out strategic goals and key needs for military assistance no earlier than the end of 2027.
These documents, developed and approved by Ukraine and its partners, will create a basis for support and distribution of assistance in such areas as air defense, artillery, armored vehicles, drones, air force, maritime security and other important areas, the defense minister stressed, adding that “much work still needs to be done”. The United States, together with its partners and allies in the Contact Group on Defense Issues for Ukraine, has already allocated more than $126 billion in military assistance to Kiev, Ukrinform recalls.