US Defense Secretary announces new Ukraine aid, defends Biden’s record on national security

SIMI VALLEY, California — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin unveiled a new $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine on Saturday in one of his last major speeches before leaving office next month.

The package won’t arrive in Ukraine immediately but will consist of contracts with U.S. defense companies to build new drones and air defense munitions. “This administration has made its choice. So has a bipartisan coalition in Congress,” said Austin. “The next administration must make its own choice.”

The announcement will leave about $1 billion more in authority for more contracts, and over $6 billion in authorities to pull other equipment from U.S. military stocks for immediate delivery to Kyiv. The money is all that remains from the $61 billion military supplemental passed by Congress in April.

It’s not clear what plans the next administration has for Ukraine aid, but President-elect Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

That meeting came just days after Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, met with Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump’s incoming national security adviser Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), and his White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. A person familiar with the talks said that the Ukrainian side was heartened by the positive tone from the Trump team at those meetings, though talks will continue about what the new administration’s plans for Ukraine are.

As soon as his speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library ended, he left for Japan on his 13th trip to the Indo-Pacific region, which will likely be his last visit to allies there before handing over to the Trump administration on Jan. 20.

Austin’s speech was a recounting of the Biden administration’s work over the past four years, in which he defended its record at home and abroad. “The Constitution charges us to ‘provide for the common Defence,’” he said. “That means holding true to what makes America exceptional. It means keeping faith with our friends. It means standing up to our foes. And it means knowing the difference between the two.”

Austin also ran through the deepening alliances with countries in the Indo-Pacific, which will likely be a focus of the next administration’s foreign policy.

He underlined the Biden administration’s progress on increasing the role of women in combat roles, something Trump’s embattled pick to replace Austin, Pete Hegseth, has flatly rejected, opening the door for a major revamp of the role of women in the armed forces.

“We are stronger when we welcome every qualified patriot eager to serve,” Austin said. “That’s not just a matter of national principle. It’s a matter of national security.”