The US President’s administration has notified Congress to authorise the sale of $50 million or more” of military hardware for Ukraine.
US Congress will propose a licence to export the sale of “defence articles, including technical data, and defence services to Ukraine in the amount of $50 million or more.”
This is the first move since Donald Trump took office and no further details has been provided over the types of weapons or intelligence services that will be sold to Kyiv.
This comes after Washington and Kyiv signed a “historic” rare earths mineral deal which will also establish a joint investment fund that will focus on extraction and processing projects in the future.
The Ukrainian President told CBS News on 13 April that Kyiv “will find the money” and would like to buy 10 US made Patriot air defence systems at a cost of $15 billion which will help protect Ukraine’s cities from Russian aerial attacks.
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Volodymyr Zelensky said, “we will find the money and pay for everything,” and the offer first to the former President Joe Biden and again to President Trump.
On Thursday Trump told NewsNation, “We are in for $350 billion, or close to it… Biden handed them $350 billion between cash and military equipment. We got nothing.”
Referencing the minerals deal Trump added, “So I said, look, they have great rare earth — meaning certain minerals, materials they have things that a lot of places do not have, big assets that they have. And we made a deal today, we get much more, in theory, than the $350 billion.” The signed minerals deal is set to allow the US special access to new investment projects to help develop natural resources inside Ukraine, this includes natural gas and oil, aluminium and graphite.
A US Treasury statement released late on Wednesday, says, “On April 30, the United States and Ukraine signed an agreement to establish the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.
“In recognition of the significant financial and material support that the people of the United States have provided to the defence of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, this economic partnership positions our two countries to work collaboratively and invest together to ensure that our mutual assets, talents, and capabilities can accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery.
“Under the leadership of President Donald J Trump, the Treasury Department and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will work together with the Government of Ukraine to finalise program governance and advance this important partnership.”
