The House Armed Services Committee advanced a defense policy bill authorizing a 3.8% pay raise for service members, a boost in funding for Ukraine’s military and a prohibition on restoring Confederate names to military bases.

In December 2022, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. agreed to give Ukraine a Patriot missile battery, an advanced ground-based air-defense system. Two more followed, along with an unknown number of interceptor missiles that have provided the only effective means of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.

The European Commission is proposing a record 2-trillion-euro budget for 2028-2034, boosting funds for Ukraine, defense, and foreign policy. But tough negotiations lie ahead as richer EU states balk at higher spending.

Instructors trained groups of recruits in Ukraine's Kyiv region on Wednesday, as the country awaits promised U.S. military aid to help in its fight against Russia.

The Pentagon and U.S. military officials in Europe are working with NATO members to ship more Patriot missile systems to Ukraine and release more munitions that were briefly halted.

The U.S. Congress has voted through five bills that have provided Ukraine with aid since the war began, doing so most recently in April 2024.

Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted northeastern Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second-largest city, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.

Putin invaded Ukraine just over 13 months into Biden's White House term. Between February 24, 2022, and January 20, 2025, the U.S. became the world's biggest supplier of weapons and aid for Ukraine's fight, pledging over $175 billion in support.