The US will transfer military equipment worth up to $400 million to Ukraine to aid its defense against the Russian invasion, including high-mobility rocket systems, mortars, and anti-vehicle rounds, as tensions rise as Kyiv allegedly prepares an assault on Crimea and struggles to hold Bakhmut, the Department of Defense announced on March 3.
“Pursuant to a delegation of authority from President [Joe] Biden, I am authorizing our 33rd drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since August 2021, valued at $400 million,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
This military support package includes extra ammo for the HIMARS and howitzers supplied by the United States, which Ukraine is employing successfully to defend itself.
HIMARS are mobile rocket-launching vehicles that cost around $4 million apiece, with each individual rocket costing approximately $168,000. From the beginning of the war, the Biden administration has provided 20 of these vehicles, produced by Lockheed Martin, to the Ukrainian military.
Biden has dispatched 143 howitzers—large artillery cannons evocative of World War II—to Ukraine at a cost of roughly $5 million each unit.
The package also includes demolition bombs and obstacle clearance equipment, as well as testing and diagnostic equipment to assist vehicle maintenance and repair, spare parts, and other field equipment to help the Ukrainians sustain their soldiers in war.
While the international world is mostly supportive of Ukraine, there are symptoms of exhaustion. Mali and Nicaragua voted against the United Nations resolution to condemn Russia this month, despite failing to do so in March 2022.
As the battle has proceeded, the United States has modified the sort of help it offers, giving armaments that it declared were off-limits at the outset of the conflict. Other European countries have also offered tanks, armored vehicles, artillery systems, and ammunition in support.
Opponents believe that the assistance package comes at an inopportune time and demonstrates the Biden administration's rash approach to the war.
This current package comes on the heels of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's pledge to reclaim Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukraine's southern peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. Moscow believes the peninsula to be part of Russia, and the majority of Crimean citizens agree.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in September that he would respond with a nuclear strike "if there is a threat to Russia's territorial integrity." State Department officials and Norwegian allies have expressed concern now that Crimea is in Kyiv's crosshairs, fearing Putin may use a tactical nuke.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the United States. In an interview with the Financial Times last month, the Joint Chiefs of Staff repeated these concerns, saying the conflict would have to finish at the negotiation table.
