US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said lawmakers want to provide Ukraine with $600 million for "lethal defence weapons" to battle Russia's unfolding attack.
"What we're doing with Ukraine is making sure that we have humanitarian assistance to help the people; that we have lethal defense weapons going into Ukraine to the tune of $600 million for them to fight their own fight," she said, speaking to reporters in San Francisco.
Russian forces are making advances on Ukraine's capital Kyiv and Moscow has continued to flow forces into the country, a senior US defence official said on Thursday.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that so far Russia had fired more than 160 missiles at Ukrainian targets.
Russia's military attack on Ukraine is taking place as US officials had predicted, president Joe Biden said on Thursday, describing the invasion as "unprovoked."
"For weeks, we have been warning that this would happen, and now it's unfolding largely as we predicted," the president said in a statement at the White House.
He said the invasion marked a "flagrant violation of international law."
