The Biden administration announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday valued at approximately $250 million.
This package includes AIM-9M missiles for air defense, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 155 mm and 105 mm artillery ammunition, mine-clearing equipment, Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets, and over 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
"Every day, Russia continues to wage a brutal war of conquest that has killed many of Ukraine’s civilians and displaced millions of its people. Their attacks on Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure have caused price volatility in food and grain markets and worsened hunger and global food insecurity around the world," Blinken said. "Russia started this war and could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks."
The administration has provided Ukraine with more than $43 billion since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine in February 2022. U.S. military aid to Ukraine comes in two forms: presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, which means the weapons come from existing U.S. stockpiles, or through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI, which means the Defense Department contracts a defense company to build weapons that will go to Ukraine. U.S. packages sent through the PDA arrive within weeks, while packages sent via USAI take much longer.
Tuesday's package was sent through President Joe Biden's drawdown authority and will be funded via the excess money the Pentagon had been allocated for Ukraine that was uncovered in the spring due to an accounting error.
The department had been calculating the price of the equipment provided to Ukraine by tallying the cost of the weapon it was replacing instead of the price of the weapon going to Ukrainian troops. The difference in the total aid provided using the price of the new replacements and the cost of the weapons given to Ukraine is $6.2 billion, the department announced.
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The error benefits Ukraine because it allows the DOD to use the difference, that $6.2 billion, to send additional weapons because the money has already been committed.
Biden and his administration have reiterated their support for Ukraine is long-term, though there's a growing sentiment on Capitol Hill, mainly in the Republican Party, about lessening or stopping military aid to Ukraine. The GOP presidential candidates also have a wide spectrum of beliefs on the war and whether Ukraine winning is vital to U.S. national security. Continued military aid to Ukraine could be on the presidential ballot in 2024, depending on which candidate wins the nomination and faces Biden in the general election.