Ukraine’s president is in the fight of his life. Again.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is racing to secure more U.S. military aid — and broader authorization to use Western-supplied weapons — as Russia makes slow-but-steady progress on the battlefield, his country’s energy grid nears the point of collapse, and Ukraine confronts the possibility of the reelection of a hostile Donald Trump.
All that makes the stakes of Zelenskyy’s visit this week to the U.S. and the U.N. incredibly high — even for someone Trump derided as “the greatest salesman in history” for his ability to persuade the U.S. to provide aid.
The Biden administration will announce new funding for Ukraine but does not appear ready to agree to one of Zelenskyy’s main requests: that the U.S. lifts restrictions on American-made missiles, allowing Kyiv to strike deeper into Russia.
President Joe Biden has been reluctant to grant that request. The administration isn’t convinced it would change the trajectory of the war and believes it could cause Putin to further escalate, according to two senior administration officials. Both were granted anonymity to publicly discuss private deliberations.
And that ask — which has also divided Ukraine’s European allies — appears to be at the centerpiece of the much-hyped “victory plan” that Zelenskyy is expected to present to Biden at the White House on Thursday, according to one of the officials.
Zelenskyy is also expected to discuss the plan with Vice President Kamala Harris in a separate meeting Thursday. And he will present it to prominent lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including the top Democrats and Republicans on the Armed Services Committees and the foreign policy committees.
In general, much of Washington is still on board with helping Ukraine fend off Russia in a 2 ½-year-old war that has left an estimated 1 million people killed or wounded on both sides.
The Biden administration is preparing a few big spending packages for Ukraine, including a $375 million drawdown of U.S. military equipment to send to Kyiv right away, and a $2.4 billion package expected to be announced Thursday while Zelenslyy is visiting the White House.
The larger package, confirmed by two U.S. officials granted anonymity to speak publicly about upcoming aid for Ukraine, will be spent on U.S. defense manufacturers to build new weapons and equipment for Ukraine, as opposed to pulling it from existing U.S. stockpiles.
The $375 million is part of a remaining…
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