U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin answered a plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for more help to keep Russian warplanes away from its cities and borders with a $500 million package of fresh military aid.

More than 850 tonnes (850,000kg) of donated humanitarian aid has been sent to Ukraine by a Lancashire charity since the the Russian invasion. Chorley-based International Aid Trust, said it had sent more than 30 emergency vehicles to the country since February 2022, as well as lorries full of clothes, food, medical supplies and generators.

The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

Russia has launched more than 51,000 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine since the start of its full-blown invasion nearly three years ago, the Ukrainian air force said on Thursday.

Ukrainian drones struck deep inside Russia in an overnight attack targeting an oil facility serving a military airfield in the city of Engels, nearly 400 miles from the border, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday.

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

The U.S. is set to provide Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles as the Biden administration works to get Kyiv in a stronger negotiating position before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, at their final meeting in Germany, urge Trump to not give up on Kyiv’s fight.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military says it struck a fuel storage depot deep inside Russia. The strike caused a huge blaze at the facility that supplies an important Russian air base.

Ukraine's air force command said one of its F-16 pilots took out six Russian cruise missiles during one attack in December — a record.