WASHINGTON—As Ukrainian and Western leaders try to assess the impact of Russia's brief weekend insurgency, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will send up to $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including more than 50 heavily armored vehicles and missiles for air defense systems.
The assistance is intended to help Ukraine's counteroffensive, which has been advancing slowly in its early phases.
The United States has delivered military weaponry and equipment under presidential drawdown authority for the 41st time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The arrangement enables the Pentagon to swiftly supply supplies from its own store to Ukraine.
Because supply shipments are normally scheduled in advance and recently included many of the same crucial battlefront weaponry, the contents were most likely not picked based on the weekend uprising by Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenary force that he leads. It is unclear if Ukrainian forces would be able to exploit the chaos in Russian ranks in the aftermath of the brief insurrection.
However, the missiles and heavy vehicles can be utilized as Ukraine seeks to capitalize on a developing animosity between the Wagner Group leader and Russia's military leadership, with doubts swirling over how many of Prigozhin's soldiers may abandon the battle.
The mercenaries crossed the border from Ukraine to take a military headquarters in a southern Russian city, then drove hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow before pulling back after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
According to a Pentagon statement, the US will provide 30 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 25 armored Stryker vehicles to Ukraine, as well as missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and Patriot air defense systems. The kit comprises Javelin and HARM missiles, demolition bombs, obstacle-clearing tools, and a variety of artillery rounds and other weaponry.
The latest package, according to White House senior deputy press Secretary Olivia Dalton, "includes key capabilities" that will help Ukraine's counteroffensive operations and reinforce its air defenses.
Since the Russian invasion, the US has sent more than $15 billion in weaponry and equipment from its stockpiles to Ukraine and has promised an additional $6.2 billion in supplies that have yet to be identified. The overpayment of more than $6 billion is due to an accounting blunder in which the armed forces overstated the worth of the weaponry they took off the shelf and shipped to Ukraine during the last year.
In general, the US has agreed to deliver more than $16.7 billion in longer-term funding for different weaponry, training, and other equipment under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, as well as an extra $2 billion in foreign military finance.
The US has at least $1.2 billion in drawdown power that has yet to be committed but will expire at the end of the current fiscal year on September 30. The remaining $1.9 billion in USAI monies will not expire until September 2024, at the conclusion of the following fiscal year.
