By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United States has agreed to send ammunitions and military vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new $725 million security assistance designed to increase country’s defense against the Russian invasion, the Defense Department has said.
Included in the latest package are, high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) and precision-guided artillery as well as medical supplies, the Defense Department said in a statement.
This is the first military assistance from the US since Russia’s barrage of missiles fired on civilian population centers in Ukraine recently. It will bring the total of U.S. security assistance since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to more than $17.5 billion.
President Joe Biden issued a statement delegating the secretary of state “to direct the drawdown of up to $725 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training” to aid Ukraine.
The aid is packaged to boost Ukraine’s ability to beat back Russia in the counter offensive that has yielded large territorial gains in recent weeks, a US official said.
Separately, Ukraine expects the United States and Germany to deliver sophisticated anti-aircraft systems this month to help it counter attacks by Russian missiles and kamikaze drones, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday.
Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) allows them to be shipped to Ukraine in the coming days. It allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.
This is the second PDA package of the U.S. government’s 2023 fiscal year which is functioning under a stop-gap funding measure and allows Biden to tap up to $3.7 billion in surplus weapons for transfer to Ukraine through mid-December.
