A Ukrainian artillery unit from the 35th Brigade fired on Russian positions near Avdiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Thursday. Photo credit: Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
WASHINGTON – The United States will provide Ukraine with up to $1.2 billion to buy additional anti-aircraft missiles, artillery shells and satellite imagery from commercial companies, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The financial support comes under a program called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows Kiev to buy goods directly from the defense industry.
“USAI gives us the opportunity to use the power and capabilities of the private sector to address Ukraine’s medium- and long-term security assistance needs,” the Brigadier General said. General Patrick S. Ryder, spokesman for the Pentagon, in a briefing before reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
According to government documents, Washington provided Kiev with more than $1.32 billion from 2016 to 2021 under the same initiative. With the new aid announcement, the total amount provided under the same initiative since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is nearly $14.6 billion.
Funds allocated under the initiative were used to purchase attack drones, Javelin anti-tank missiles, artillery ammunition of Soviet caliber and NATO standards, coastal defense missiles, armored river boats, M1 Abrams tanks, NASAMS M142 air defense missile launchers, HIMARS vehicles and those launched from them Guided missiles among others.
The goods will arrive in Ukraine in the coming months and years as defense companies produce them. The aid announced Tuesday is separate from the 37 previously announced aid packages of military equipment withdrawn from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile since August 2021, totaling at least $21 billion.
A key focus of the $1.2 billion in new funding for Ukraine will go to buying Kiev air defense missiles to use in repelling Russian airstrikes, Gen. Ryder said. Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, has been the target of repeated Russian attacks, including on Monday and early Tuesday.
“We will continue to deploy ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and help Ukraine protect its citizens from Russian cruise missiles and Iranian drones,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to be sticking with for both the short-term and the long-term.”
General Ryder also confirmed reports that a US-made Patriot air defense system shipped to Ukraine shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile last Thursday.
The Kinzhal, an air-launched version of an Iskander ballistic missile, is believed to meet the definition of a hypersonic weapon – namely, being able to fly and maneuver at speeds at least five times the speed of sound, a characteristic designed to destroy missile defenses.
In addition to a single US-provided Patriot system, the Ukrainians also operate one provided by the Netherlands, General Ryder said, but he deferred questions to the Ukrainian government about one deployed to counter Russia’s Kinzhal.
Aishvarya Kavi contributed to the coverage.
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