The United States will provide nearly $US1 billion more in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine, as the Biden administration rushes to spend all the congressionally approved money it has left to bolster Kyiv before Donald Trump takes office.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the latest package will include more drones and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that the US has provided.
While these weapons are critically needed now, they will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term systems to be put on contract.
The weapon systems purchased are often intended to support Ukraine's future military capabilities, not make an immediate difference on the battlefield.
The $US988 million ($A1.5 billion) package is on top of an additional $US725 million ($A1.1 billion) in US military assistance, including counter-drone systems and HIMARS munitions, announced Monday that would be drawn from the Pentagon’s stockpiles to more quickly get to the front lines.
Ukraine is facing an intensified onslaught by Russia, which is now using thousands of North Korean troops to augment its fight to take back the Kursk region. Moscow also has launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile and regularly strikes Kyiv's civilian infrastructure.
With questions about whether Trump will maintain military support to Ukraine, the Biden administration has been trying to spend every dollar remaining from a massive foreign aid bill passed earlier this year to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible.
“This administration has made its choice. So has a bipartisan coalition in Congress. The next administration must make its own choice,” Austin said at an annual gathering of national security officials, defence firms and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Trump had a hastily arranged meeting on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and France's Emmanuel Macron while in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Macron and other European leaders are trying to persuade Trump to maintain support for Ukraine.
There is great fear in Ukraine that Trump could drastically reduce US military aid for the country, which has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for almost three years and has repeatedly warned that it will lose the war if allies stop delivering military aid.
Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has criticised US aid for Ukraine and called for bringing a quick end to the war, raising concerns in Ukraine about what terms may be laid out for any future negotiations.
Zelensky said the talks at the Élysée Palace - ahead of a ceremony marking the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral - were "good and productive".
"President Trump is, as always, resolute. I thank him for that," Zelensky posted on X.
"We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way," he added. "Peace through strength is possible."
Austin said he was “confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security and human freedom”.
It was one of Austin’s last major speeches as President Joe Biden’s defence secretary and a cap to his more than 41 years serving as a soldier and general.
Under Austin’s watch, the Pentagon in 2022 launched a regular meeting that now counts more than 50 countries to figure out how to get the tens of millions of rounds of ammunition and billions of dollars in advanced weaponry to Ukraine. Without that flow of support, it's possible the country would have fallen to Russia after it invaded in February 2022.
“Together, we have helped Ukraine survive an all-out assault by the largest military in Europe,” Austin said.
