President Joe Biden said he would discuss a peace plan proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he unveiled $8 billion in new assistance for Kyiv and sought to assure his counterpart of continued allied support.

“We have to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield,” Biden said Thursday as he welcomed Zelenskyy to the White House. “We stand with Ukraine now and in the future.”

Biden earlier Thursday announced new military assistance for Ukraine and plans to convene a leader-level meeting of key allies to coordinate additional support when he visits Germany next month. The package includes $2.4 billion for the U.S. to buy weapons and equipment directly from U.S. companies and an additional $5.5 billion to be shipped from existing U.S. weapons stocks.

The shipments will include additional air defense systems, drones and munitions. Biden is also providing Ukraine with a new long-range munition known as the Joint Standoff Weapon, and has asked the Pentagon to refurbish an additional Patriot air defense battery and expand the F-16 training program for Ukrainian pilots.

The Pentagon will push to allocate the full remainder of Ukraine assistance authorized by Congress before the end of Biden’s term, in an effort to accelerate delivery.

“Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail. We will continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden told Zelenskyy.

The U.S. is also moving to disrupt a cryptocurrency network it says has been helping Russia evade sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. And Biden said he was working to ensure that restrictions on the drawdown of U.S. equipment didn’t prevent Ukraine from receiving assistance.

The new steps are in addition to a $375 million weapons package that included rocket systems and artillery announced Wednesday as leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Still, the effort is likely to fall short of some of the security and economic assurances Zelenskyy is expected to seek as part of his proposal, including NATO membership and promises of guaranteed access to certain advanced weapons systems.

Zelenskyy-Trump Clash

Zelenskyy on Thursday said he had met congressional lawmakers and found support from both Democrats and Republicans for Ukraine.

“I’ve met with both Senate and the House, and I thank you for the unwavering bipartisan support, and to all American people,” he said. “Together, we have to win. We will win.”

Long-term prospects for Ukraine assistance, though, have also been muddied this week amid a simmering dispute between Zelenskyy and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

While the Ukrainian leader will meet with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during his trip to the White House, Trump declined Zelenskyy’s offer for a meeting.

The snub came after The New Yorker published an interview in which Zelenskyy called Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance “too radical.” Trump’s campaign was dismayed that Zelenskyy visited the battleground state of Pennsylvania on his U.S. taxpayer-funded trip to the U.S., according to a person who requested anonymity to detail internal discussions.

At an event Wednesday, Trump said Zelenskyy was “making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president” and criticized Ukraine for failing to broker a deal with Russia to end the war.

“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before. Every time he came to our country, he’d walk away with $60 billion,” Trump said Wednesday.

Biden’s visit to Germany just weeks before Election Day also risks injecting politics into a high-profile summit, though allies said the conference was an important coordinating effort.

“We can only say at this point that we will prepare together very carefully for this conference and see what further support can be provided. What is clear is that Ukraine is still in need of our support,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to a NATO facility in Poland on Thursday.

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(With assistance from Iain Rogers and Roxana Tiron.)

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