The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the United States would provide Kyiv with a new military package worth up to $500 million. The Pentagon says the new equipment will include ground vehicles, including Bradley fighting vehicles, Stryker armored personnel carriers, and munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, better known as HIMARS. It will also include missiles for the Patriot air defense system, credited with stopping Russian missile barrages on Ukrainian cities, and other shorter-range anti-air weapons. Other munitions and laser-guided rockets to attack Russian forces round out the package.
It is the latest in a series of packages the Biden administration has delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded more than a year ago. Unlike most of the previous aid, this one will not be drawn down from existing Defense Department stocks but contracted with manufacturers and purchased from them as part of a new program called USAI. The USAI packages are designed to give Ukraine capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and help it develop a long-term supply of lethal weaponry.
The Pentagon’s decision to provide the additional equipment comes as Russian forces are stalled mainly in their advance in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is preparing for a spring counteroffensive to test Russia’s workforce and weapons stockpiles. A Pentagon official said the $700 million in additional weapons would allow Ukrainian forces to challenge both front and rear areas of Russian positions, including command posts and ammunition hubs that lie beyond the front line.
US-led troops have already helped Ukraine liberate several towns and villages near the Russian border, and a major Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon begin. The allied coalition supporting Ukraine has grown to more than 50 countries.
Many Western analysts see the battle for Ukraine as a test of whether the West will support its traditional allies or fall into Vladimir Putin’s trap. The ensuing conflict has encouraged Russia’s revanchist ambitions and opened the door to further aggression by the Kremlin on NATO’s border, which could threaten the lives of millions of people and destabilize a region that has provided energy supplies to Europe.
But most Americans oppose sending billions in additional arms to Ukraine, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation polling and the New America Think Tank. The biggest reasons given by those who oppose the aid are that the United States has its own pressing needs and concerns about provoking Russia, as well as concerns about corruption and embezzlement in Ukraine. More than half of those surveyed by the think tanks say they would be more likely to support additional arms for Ukraine if the administration had more robust accounting measures in place that could prevent stolen funds from being used for nonmilitary purposes.
