(DCWatchdog.com) – The US government has announced a new security assistance package to Ukraine, which has been fighting off an invasion by Putin’s Russia for nearly 14 months now.
The new US military aid package to Ukraine is worth $2.6 billion and consists primarily of ammunition for previously supplied weapons systems, the US Defense Department announced.
Of those, $500 million worth of arms will be drawn from the existing stockpiles of the US military. The remaining $2.1 billion will be funded by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which directly pays the defense industry for procuring new equipment and munitions.
The new package will bring the total US military aid to Ukraine so far to over $35 billion since Putin’s Russia invaded the pro-Western nation from three sides on February 24, 2022.
Days earlier, the US government approved another military aid package for Ukraine consisting of ammunition and mobile bridge systems worth $400 million.
The Pentagon announcement notes that the new supplies to Ukraine mark the 35th presidential drawdown from its inventories since August 2021.
Thus, the $500 million drawdown aid will feature items in 13 different categories, including ammunition for various weapons systems such as Patriot air defense systems, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and different types of howitzers and tanks.
It will also provide Ukraine with 400 grenade launchers, 61 heavy fuel tankers, ten trucks, and ten trailers to transport heavy equipment, as well as spare parts and equipment for repair and maintenance.
The $2.1 billion in new USAI funds will be spent by the Defense Department to provide Ukraine with munitions and equipment in 23 different categories.
Those include extra ammo for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and other anti-aircraft systems.
That package will also feature additional rocket launchers, mortars, Javelin anti-armor systems, precision aerial munitions, tactical vehicles, fuel tankers, bridging systems, radar terminals, and 23 million rounds of small arms ammo, among others.
A report by Breitbart News notes that European US allies supporting Ukraine, such as the UK and Germany, have been trying to boost military production to keep helping the Ukrainians. Still, such efforts have sometimes struggled with insufficient energy.
One munitions manufacturer last month – Norway’s Nammo – accused the Chinese government of using TikTok to sabotage arms production for Ukraine – as Communist China and Putin’s Russia have been collaborating closely, albeit informally.
According to Nammo, TikTok’s employment of a nearby data center was hampering their ammunition output.
“We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos,” the company’s CEO said, noting he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Communist China was deliberately consuming lots of energy to trouble ammunition production.
Ukraine’s new US military aid package comes as the Ukrainian military prepares a much-anticipated large counter-offensive against the Russians in the coming weeks. The Ukrainians haven’t received Western fighter jets, so their counter-attack will primarily rely on artillery firepower.
The U.S. government is to pump another $2.6 billion worth of munitions into Ukraine, Kyiv officials confirmed Monday. https://t.co/MlTzXYuJYw
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 4, 2023
