The United States on Monday announced nearly $5.9 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine, part of the last funds to be disbursed under President Joe Biden before an expected shift in support from incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
The military aid includes $1.25 billion in the so-called Presidential Reduction Authority, which removes weapons and ammunition from U.S. arsenals.and the remaining $1.22 billion from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, Biden said in a statement. Help includes air defense, artillery and “other critical weapons systems,” he said.
Besides, The Treasury Department announced the latest disbursement of $3.4 billion in direct budget support under last year’s Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act.
“I have directed my administration to continue increasing as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible, including withdrawing older American equipment for Ukraine, quickly delivering it to the battlefield, and then revitalizing the US defense industrial base to modernize and replenish our stockpile with new weapons,” Biden said in the statement.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to quickly end the war in Ukraine once he takes office on January 20.and has said he would be willing to increase aid to kyiv or end it entirely to force both sides to reach a deal. Last week, Russia rejected Trump’s request for an immediate ceasefire, noting that the future of Ukraine’s relationship with NATO is a major sticking point.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the economic assistance, coordinated with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, will help maintain “critical government services” as Russia steps up attacks on civilian and critical infrastructure. .
The Pentagon said in an email that Biden still has access to about $4.35 billion in stockpile withdrawal authorization.which are obtained from Pentagon inventories. But officials have previously acknowledged that withdrawing a large amount of US stockpiles before the end of this term risks undermining US preparedness.
Ukraine will use aid funds in terms of security for long-term arms contracts with American companies, separate from Pentagon inventories. The United States has provided more than $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the February 2022 Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s military is struggling to defend itself against Russian advances in the east, and U.S. officials said last week that kyiv’s forces have lost about half of the territory taken in Russia’s Kursk region and could lose the rest within a matter of months.
