(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said he’s confident he can work with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to continue providing US assistance to Ukraine, despite the Republican leader’s indication this week that he may not back a new supplemental funding package for the war on top of the Pentagon’s regular budget.
“The fact of the matter is that I believe we’ll have the funding necessary to support Ukraine as long as it takes, and I believe that we’re going to add support” as needed, Biden told reporters at a news conference alongside visiting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The Pentagon is set to announce as early as Friday a long-term arms package for Ukraine heavy on air defense munitions valued at more than $2 billion, according to administration officials.
The money, to be awarded under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, will bankroll the purchase of Hawk missile launchers and missiles and two types of advanced Patriot air defense missiles.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited flood-devastated Kherson in the south as authorities said Russian forces were shelling the regional capital during evacuation operations. Some 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) were under water two days after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed, as Ukraine asked the United Nations for assistance in Russian-occupied areas.
Almost a third of the the flood zone, where thousands are being evacuated, is held by Ukrainian forces, while the rest is in Russian-occupied territory, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
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Market Impact
Wheat futures rose as the escalation in fighting deepened worries over grain supplies from the key Black Sea trading hub.
Coming Up
- Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev meets counterparts from CSTO states in Belarus, Interfax reports
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