The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.