Departing President Joe Biden has only a matter of weeks left in office but that didn’t stop him Wednesday from ordering more weapon deliveries to Ukraine.
His directive to the Department of Defense came on the same day Russia launched a missile attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in multiple cities even as more Americans stand opposed to such moves.
The strikes targeted power stations in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the south-eastern Dnipro region killed at least one person and injured six more as the country woke on Christmas Day, ABC News reports.
In the aftermath of the missile strikes, half a million people in the Kharkiv region were left without heating in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital Kyiv and elsewhere.
Biden condemned the attack as “outrageous” and said the U.S. will “continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defence against Russian forces.” The president added:
The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardise the safety of its grid.
Let me be clear: the Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace and safety.
The United States and the international community must continue to stand with Ukraine until it triumphs over Russia’s aggression.
The president’s commitment to further weapons deliveries to Ukraine come less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on January 20.
Washington has already committed $175 billion in aid for Ukraine.
Prior to his victory in this year’s U.S. election, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly promised to end the almost three-year war being waged between Ukraine and Russia “within 24 hours.”
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