The United States is set to send a new package of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, to assist in its war with Russia.
The Department of Defense announced the military assistance package, which it valued at $250 million, in a Sept. 6 press statement.
The military assistance package draws from the Presidential Drawdown Authority, an account the president may pull from to quickly divert military equipment from U.S. ordnance to a foreign country in a time of emergency. The Friday announcement marked the 65th time since August 2021 that the Biden administration has drawn from U.S. weapons stores to assist Ukrainian forces.
The assistance package includes RIM-7 and Stinger air defense missiles. The package also includes 155mm and 105mm shells for tube artillery systems, and ammunition for the high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) which the United States has sent to Ukraine. The package also provides munitions for tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missile launchers, as well as Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank launchers.
Additional M113 armored personnel carriers, mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and patrol boats were also included in the new military assistance package, along with small arms ammunition, grenades, and demolition equipment.
Zelenskyy Seeks Long-Range Support
The Defense Department announced this new $250 million military assistance package following an in-person meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday. The contact group consists of more than 50 nations that have sent military equipment to Ukraine since Russian troops marched on the country in February 2022.
The United Kingdom, another member of the contact group, also announced a new round of military support for Ukraine on Friday as the group met. The U.K. Defence Ministry, on Friday, pledged the transfer of 650 lightweight multirole missile (LMM) systems, which it valued at £162 million ($212.8 million).
The LMM, produced by Thales, is designed for a variety of purposes, including air defense.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has increasingly called for his backers to send air defense systems to blunt Russian strikes. He’s also called for his supporters to loosen restrictions on the long-range weapons they’ve sent to Ukraine, and to allow his forces to strike targets inside Russia more freely.
The Biden administration has permitted Ukrainian forces to use donated weapons on Russian soil only to strike targets directly involved in cross-border attacks into Ukraine.
As the Ukraine contact group convened on Friday, Zelenskyy reiterated his requests for permission to more freely strike Russia with donated long-range weapons.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the contact group heard Zelenskyy’s calls for additional rounds of military support and emphasized continuing rounds of military assistance. Still, Austin did not signal a shift in policy to allow Ukraine to more freely strike inside Russian territory.
Asked about the Ukrainian president’s request for long-range strike permission, Austin said, “What I have been focused on throughout, is trying to help Ukraine be successful in this tactical fight, in this operational struggle, to ... make sure that it can defend its sovereign territory.”
