OnPolitics: Will these deadly weapons in Ukraine make a difference?

Good afternoon, OnPolitics readers.

President Joe Biden will address the nation Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. on a series of recent mass shootings and ramp up his call for Congress to pass "common sense" gun reform measures.

The address comes after deadly shootings at supermarket in Buffalo, New York, an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have reinvigorated the president's push for gun reform.

Biden in the past has said Congress should renew a federal ban on assault weapons and pass new background check requirements. Last week, Biden said that 18 years old is too young to be able to purchase a gun.

The president said Wednesday that he's unsure whether lawmakers will be able to pass gun control legislation.

"I’m never confident, totally," he told reporters when asked whether he expects Congress will pass legislation. "It depends. And I don’t know. I’ve not been in on the negotiations that are going on right now."

It's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories out of Washington.

POTUS equips Ukraine with deadlier weapons

The U.S. has ramped up the flow of American-made weapons to Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.

The administration hopes the most recent military aid package, to include long-range precision rockets, will give Ukraine more leverage in the 3-month old conflict.

Ukraine will be provided with a mobile rocket artillery launcher by the Pentagon. The weaponry has a 40-mile range, compared to the U.S.-provided M777 howitzers with a range of under 20 miles.

Other western allies have provided similar howitzers, also known as High Mobility Rocket Systems.

The new weapons package was met with approval from Ukraine and ire from the Kremlin. Russia has increasingly tried to repackage the invasion as a proxy war between Washington and Moscow, though President Joe Biden has promised not to send U.S. troops.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary accused the United States of “deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire," and that the Kremlin doesn’t trust Kyiv’s assurances that the U.S. rocket launch systems will not be used to attack Russia.

Biden reassured the nation that he is not trying to provoke Putin.

“As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday evening in The New York Times.

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• Senate showdown in Florida: Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., filed candidacy papers Tuesday to officially challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for his seat.

• 'Proud Boys' free to attend Trump rallies: Trump officials and their security officers said members of the far-right group are welcomed at rallies — but cannot wear or carry non-Trump related regalia.

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Biden says he wasn't aware of baby formula shortage until April. Companies knew 'from the beginning'

Biden said Wednesday he wasn't alerted that the nation faced a looming shortage of baby formula until April, though executives of baby formula manufacturers said they sounded the alarm to retailers two months earlier.

"We knew from the very beginning that this would be a very serious event," said Robert Cleveland, senior vice president at Reckitt, which produces baby formula.

The disconnect emerged at a virtual White House meeting between Biden and executives of five baby formula companies to discuss the administration's efforts to address the shortage by ramping up formula production.

Triggering the crisis was the safety-related closure of Abbott Nutrition's formula-making plant in Sturgis, Michigan, on Feb. 17. Abbott supplies 46.2% of the U.S. supply of baby formula, and about one-quarter was traditionally produced at the Michigan plant.

After the 50-minute meeting, Biden repeated, "I don't think anyone anticipated the impact of the shutdown of Abbott facility," minutes after manufacturers said they anticipated a shortage.

“They did, but I didn't," Biden said, adding that he wasn't made aware of the problem until early April. “We did everything in our power from that point on. That's all I can tell you right now. And we're going to continue to do it together.”

Absent from Wednesday's gathering were executives from Abbott, the company at the center of the shortage. Jean-Pierre pointed to the company's consent decree with the FDA, which dictates benchmarks required to resume production, when asked why Abbott was not invited.

"That process is ongoing and should remain between them," she said.

Good news for parents: Kids under 5 will have access to a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as June 21. -- Amy and Chelsey

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden sends long-range missiles, advanced weapons to Ukraine