Following a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and in anticipation of a new Russian offensive in Eastern Ukraine, President Biden on Wednesday approved an $800 million package of military assistance to the country, which includes additional helicopters and the first provision of US artillery.
This package also includes armoured personnel carriers, armored Humvees, naval drone vessels used in coastal defense, and gear and equipment used to protect soldiers in chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological attacks.
Biden said in a statement, “This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine.
“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. We cannot rest now.”
The package is the latest in a series of US security assistance packages valued at a combined $2.6 billion that has been committed to Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24. The weaponry and support material has played an important role in Ukraine's successful defense thus far.
In response to the announcement of the aid, Zelenskyy said he is "sincerely thankful" for it. In his nightly address, he said the US and others such as Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, “have helped us from the first day, those who did not hesitate to give us weapons, those who did not doubt whether to impose sanctions”.
Biden is under pressure from members of both parties in Congress to expand and accelerate US aid.
Robert Gates, a former CIA director and defense secretary, said Wednesday he believes the administration needs to push hard for weapon donations by NATO members in Eastern Europe, whose arsenals include Soviet-era tanks and other weaponry and equipment that could help Ukraine immediately.
“The United States ought to be acting, 24/7 — how do we mobilize the equipment and how do we get it into Ukraine and into the hands of the Ukrainians,” Gates said in an online forum sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He added it's very important and critically urgent and the US ought to be sort of ransacking the arsenals of those states and he thinks they would be cooperative, particularly if they are given assurances that the Pentagon will provide US replacements for the donated weapons.
The Pentagon said the $800 million package announced by Biden includes weapons and equipment that will require some training for a Ukrainian military not fully accustomed to US military technology. US and allied forces had been present inside Ukraine to provide training for eight years before pulling out in advance of the Russia's latest invasion.
The new arms package includes 18 of the US Army's 155mm howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds, two air surveillance radars, 300 Switchblade “kamikaze” armed drones, and 500 Javelin missiles designed to knock out tanks and other armor. The package also includes 10 counter-artillery radars used to track incoming artillery and other projectiles to determine their point of origin for counter attacks.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said delivery of the material will be expedited, but he offered no specific timetable.
He said, “This list came directly out of multiple conversations with Ukrainians in the last few days as we began to see the Russians now start to reprioritize the Donbas fight." He was referring to Russia's shift from a failed offensive in Ukraine's north aimed at the capital Kyiv to a force build-up in the country's eastern Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.
Ukrainian military personnel will need training on the radars as well as the howitzers and the Switchblade drones, Kirby said. He said the training may be done by US soldiers in Europe and the arrangements are being worked out. He added, “These are not highly complex systems,” Kirby said, and so extensive training will not likely be required."
Among the other items in the package are 11 Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopters that the United States had planned to provide to Afghanistan before Biden last year decided to fully withdraw from the country. They are transport helicopters that also can function in an attack role. The Pentagon previously had sent five Mi-17s to Ukraine, Kirby said.
With AP inputs
