Ready To Disburse Additional Aid To Kyiv, This Is President Biden's Response When President Zelensky Invited Him To Ukraine

JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden said he did not know whether to visit Ukraine or not, as sources said he would announce an additional aid package for Kyiv.

President Biden said this, after previously Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked him to visit.

"The answer is, I don't know," President Biden said when asked by reporters at an event in New Hampshire.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a CNN interview broadcast on Sunday that he wanted President Biden to visit and hoped that would happen.

Meanwhile, the White House said President Biden was unlikely to leave, but they were considering whether to send top US officials to meet and show solidarity with President Zelenskiy as he faces an intensifying Russian offensive in the country's east.

Sources familiar with the situation have named Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin or Secretary of State Antony Blinken as US officials who may have made the trip.

As for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, it is impossible for them to visit there under the current circumstances, considering security issues.

"If and when that happens, we want to make sure it's done in a very secure way," US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview last week at the Economic Club of Washington DC.

Other Western leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have traveled to Ukraine after Russia's invasion in February.

Separately, President Biden is expected to announce in the coming days another military aid package to Ukraine of the same size as $800 million announced last week, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a new package was expected to be roughly the size of the previous package, but details were still being worked out. This new package was first reported by NBC News.

Last week, Washington announced an additional $800 million in aid, including artillery systems, artillery shells, armored personnel carriers, and unmanned coastal defense vessels, expanding the range of materials sent to Kyiv to include new types of heavy equipment.

If this aid package is realized, the total value of US aid to Ukraine will reach USD 3 billion since the February 24 invasion.