No end: US announces $500M weapons package for Ukraine

 The United States will send Ukraine another $500 million in weapons and equipment, including dozens more armored vehicles to replenish those lost on the battlefield since Kyiv began its summer counteroffensive, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.  

The package, which comes a little under a month after Ukraine began its military effort to reclaim territory from Russian forces, includes 30 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 25 Stryker armored personnel carriers. 

Of the 113 Bradleys Washington has sent Kyiv up until now, roughly 15 percent of them have been damaged or destroyed, U.S. officials have said. The vehicles are seen as key to help Ukraine push Kremlin troops from its lands. 

The security assistance package also includes “key capabilities to support Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations” and “strengthen its air defenses to help Ukraine protect its people,” such as more munitions for the American provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and Patriot air defense systems, artillery rounds, TOW missiles, High-speed Anti-Radiation missiles, Javelins, Stinger anti-aircraft systems and other equipment. 

“Clearly, there will be equipment that is damaged, there will be requirements to help [Ukraine] sustain the fight. And so you see things like ammunition, additional armored capabilities, capability that can be employed in breaching operations,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. 

The latest weapons tranche comes after private Russian military company Wagner Group on Friday launched then aborted a rebellion against Moscow in less than 24 hours, shaking Kremlin leadership. 

Ryder said the U.S. announcement of the lethal aid was not sped up, nor was the amount of it increased based on the situation in Russia. 

“We have a process that we’ve been employing for a while now and so this is part of that that process,” he said.  

The authorization is the administration’s 41st drawdown of equipment from Pentagon stocks for Ukraine since August 2021.  

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4070433-us-500-million-weapons-package-ukraine/