The Department of Defense announced a military aid package to Ukraine on Monday valued at roughly $1 billion.
This latest aid includes additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS); 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition; 20 120 mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition; and munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems.
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“Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announces the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued at up to $1 billion to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs,” acting Pentagon press secretary Todd Breasseale said in a statement. “This authorization is the Biden Administration’s eighteenth drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.”
“It is the largest single drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment utilizing this authority, and this package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons, and equipment — the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country,” he added.
Presidential drawdowns are when the president authorizes the military to include weapons from its own stockpiles in packages like these.
The aid comes as experts expect the war to shift its front lines to the south, away from the eastern part of Ukraine.
“Conditions in [Eastern Ukraine] have essentially stabilized and the focus is really shifting to the south in part because the Ukrainians are starting to put some pressure down south and the Russians have been forced to redeploy their forces down there,” Colin Kahl, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters on Monday.
“Yes, both sides are taking casualties — the war is the most intense conventional conflict in Europe since the Second World War, but the current Ukrainians have a lot of advantages, not the least of which [is] their will to fight,” he explained.
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The Biden administration has committed approximately $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since President Joe Biden was inaugurated and $9.1 billion since Russia invaded in February.
