US President Biden to announce $1 billion in new military aid to Ukraine Wednesday – WSJ

“President Biden is expected to announce more than $1 billion in new military assistance to the Ukraine government as early as Wednesday, according to US officials,” said the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) early Wednesday morning in Asia.

The news sites, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to make a plea to Congress for more aid to defend his country,” as a reason.

Key quotes

The money would come from the roughly $13.6 billion allotted for Ukraine in the omnibus budget bill Mr. Biden signed Tuesday.

While the White House is considering sending more troops to Europe to add to the roughly 15,000 deployed there since the Russia-Ukraine crisis began, Mr. Biden isn’t expected to deploy more troops now, U.S. officials said.

FX implications

The news adds to the already strained relations between the US and Russia and weighs on the market sentiment, which in turn pushes S&P 500 Futures to print mild losses despite Wall Street’s upbeat closing. That said, the US stock futures drop 0.15% intraday at the latest.

Read: Forex Today: Dollar up ahead of Fed and as fear rules