The U.S. gives Ukraine $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total security assistance was a recent announcement by President Biden, who committed to Ukraine $1 billion in just the past week, and a total of $2 billion since the start of the Biden administration.
What does the latest military aid contain?
The new $800 million assistance package includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems, 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, and 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, 400 shotguns, 25,000 helmets and much more.
The President spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for nearly an hour during which he informed his Ukrainian counterpart of an additional aid of $800 million.
“The steady supply of weapons the United States and its allies and partners have provided to Ukraine has been critical in sustaining its fight against the Russian invasion. It has helped ensure that Putin failed in his initial war aims to conquer and control Ukraine,” Mr. Biden said. “We cannot rest now.”
Biden is grappling with how to bolster Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion without intervening directly with the U.S. forces and stopping short regarding some equipment he fears will trigger a global war.
Biden at first largely relied on punishing economic sanctions and defensive aid to curb Russia’s leverage – but has steadily announced new shipments of lethal military hardware while ratcheting up his own condemnations.
It has been 50 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he said was a “special military operation to denazify” Ukraine. The war that followed, has now left thousands dead, cities pulverized and turned the ex-soviet state into a macabre tape.
‘A little bit like Kansas’
The weapons being provided are focused on the type of fighting that is likely to take place in the Donbas region – open terrain rather than the close fighting in urban and wooded areas that are occurred around Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that the package was tailored to fight in Donbas, a topography he described as “a little bit like Kansas.”
The new weapons package, Kirby added, was “very much an effort to give the Ukrainians every possible advantage in this fight that’s coming.”
Russia-Ukraine update – It’s working as quickly as possible
The package announced marked the first time the U.S. was providing Ukraine with howitzer cannons. Kirby said that several systems would require additional training for the Ukrainians to use them, including the howitzers and counter artillery radars.
Many of the weapons that are being directed toward Ukraine are heavier, making them more difficult to transport across the country.
Ukraine has collected the weapons provided to date from the U.S. and other countries at its western border before moving them to forces around the country.
Kirby said the pentagon knows “time is not our friend” as Russia prepared its next offensive step but that it’s working to move equipment into Ukraine’s hands as quickly as possible.
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