President Joe Biden announced today, after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the U.S. would be sending another $800 million worth of weapons and other military support to Ukraine. “This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement. “These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers. I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters.”
In a separate statement, Biden, citing authority granted by the Foreign Assistance Act, directed the drawdown of up to an aggregate value of $800 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, “to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.”
The Pentagon is also coordinating closely with U.S. defense contractors to supply heavy weapons and other equipment for the longer term continuation of the war. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks confirmed three aspects of the effort to ship ever more weapons to Ukraine, in remarks to a Defense Writers Group event yesterday. “I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of the ability to identify what’s needed, work with allies and partners, work with industry, work inside the services and then move that capability forward and get it into Ukraine,” she said. “Just an incredibly impressive set of work.” To sustain the effort, the Defense Department “must work with those allies in the industry that supports us and supports them,” she said.
