White House Says New Ukraine Aid On The Way, As Kyiv Braces For Fresh Attack

The Pentagon announced a $425 million package of fresh security assistance to Ukraine under the presidential "drawdown authority," its 69th tranche of defense equipment since late 2021.

The announcement came hours before authorities in Kyiv on November 2 said air-defense units were attempting to repel a fresh Russian air strike on the capital and warned civilians to remain in shelters.

It also came just days ahead of U.S. elections on November 5 that could prove pivotal to ongoing Western support for Ukraine.

The latest comments on the campaign trail by Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump have highlighted the divide between him and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris over U.S. support for Ukraine's defense amid the two-and-a-half-year-old full-scale Russian invasion.

A clip from a campaign appearance in Warren, Michigan, showed Trump saying, "They got us into Ukraine. We should have never gone into Ukraine. If I was president, you would have never gone into Ukraine."

The United States has spearheaded the international aid and material effort for Ukraine and has reportedly provided intelligence support, but is not believed to have considered sending troops there.

Harris and some influential Republicans have insisted that U.S. support is essential to defending democracy and resisting Russian aggression in Europe and the West.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spent months urging Western suppliers to allow Kyiv to use their advanced weaponry to strike deeper inside Russia, and this week accused them of inaction in response to Russia's alleged plan to deploy thousands of North Korean troops to Ukraine.

Zelenskiy said late on November 1 that all countries who don't want the war to expand and spread to other regions of the world “need to act."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in September that the use of donated U.S. weapons for long-range strikes into Russia would not turn the tide of the war in Ukraine's favor.

The United States and its allies previously ruled out their use to strike deep in Russia over fears that it could result in retaliation with nuclear weapons.

Russian ex-President and senior security official Dmitry Medvedev was quoted by TASS as saying Washington was wrong if it believed Moscow wouldn't use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened, agencies reported.

He and other Russian officials have repeatedly warned of a potential nuclear response under certain conditions.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said late on November 2 that explosions had been heard in the Kyiv suburb of Vyshhorod and that "air defense forces are operating in the region and in the capital."

"Stay in shelters!" he warned on Telegram, although details remained scarce as midnight approached.

Earlier, an overnight Russian drone bombardment targeted Kyiv and other population centers, including Sumy in the northeast, injuring at least seven people.

Ukrainian military officials said they had shot down all of the drones in that attack but that debris had ignited a residential building in Kyiv.

Two people were injured when debris from a Russian drone fell on the 16-story building in the capital and ignited a fire, Ukrainian authorities said early on November 2. Klitschko said one of the victims required hospitalization. Emergency services extinguished the blaze.

Meanwhile, five more people were injured, one of them seriously, in the northeastern city of Sumy when a Russian drone struck a nine-story building late on November 1, prosecutors said.

Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of routinely targeting civilians, a charge Moscow rejects.

Kyiv city military administrator Serhiy Popko called the hours-long drone attack part of Russia's "old and familiar tactics."