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Added on the 26/04/2024 19:21:26 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
The United States announces close to $3 billion in fresh military assistance for Ukraine as the country marks its Independence Day, Undersecretary for Defense Colin Kahl says at a Pentagon press briefing, in the largest single security package yet in the six-month-old war. SOUNDBITE
Visiting Brussels for a NATO summit, US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin discusses a new financial package for Ukraine. SOUNDBITE
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says a delay in passing new US aid for Ukraine was already hurting Kyiv's forces on the battlefield against Russia. "We see the impact already of the fact that the US has not been able to make a decision, but I expect the US to be able to make a decision, that the Congress and the House of Representatives will agree continued support to Ukraine," Stoltenberg tells journalists at a meeting of the alliance's defence ministers in Brussels. SOUNDBITE
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says that President Biden "was not informed until this morning" that US Secretary of Defence Chief Lloyd Austin's hospitalization was due to prostate cancer. SOUNDBITE
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledges to find a way around Hungary's block on a 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine at a summit early next year. "We will have an operational solution" she says, speaking after a crunch EU summit in Brussels where member states agreed to begin membership talks with Kyiv, despite opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. SOUNDBITE