Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
The U.S. is preparing a military aid package for Ukraine worth $1 billion, Reuters reported on April 23, citing two unnamed American officials.
The reports followed the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives after months of congressional gridlock, when a key foreign aid package for U.S. allies was passed, providing over $60 billion in assistance for Kyiv.
The bill has to go to the Senate, where a vote is expected as early as April 23. U.S. President Joe Biden said that he would sign the aid bill "as soon as it is approved."
This is the first defense package Ukraine may receive under the yet to be signed aid bill. The previous one worth $300 million was pledged by Washington on March 12.
Reuters reported, citing its sources, that the new package will include vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS).
The new tranche will also include 155 millimeter artillery shells and "other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield," Reuters wrote.
Some of the U.S. military aid for Kyiv is already reportedly in Germany and Poland, cutting down the time needed for the weapons and equipment to reach the front line.
Since the delays in U.S. aid began, Ukraine has lost a key front-line city of Avdiivka and other settlements, and its energy infrastructure suffered heavily as a result of Russian strikes.
Many observers and officials have tied these losses directly to artillery and air defense ammunition shortages, compounded by the lack of American supplies. CIA Director William Burns went as far as to say that Ukraine could lose the war this year without U.S. assistance.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said U.S. aid gives Ukraine "a chance at victory" in Russia's full-scale war.
Kateryna Denisova
(Updated: )
