USA to announce hundreds of millions in new security assistance to Ukraine

April 14, 2022

On Wednesday, April 13, sources close to the Biden Administration said America would announce hundreds of millions of dollars in new military assistance to Ukraine, reports CNN.

The final amount had not been confirmed as of Tuesday, but most estimated that the bottom line would be $700 million, with President Joe Biden using his drawdown authority to authorize the new aid package for Ukraine.

Reuters first reported on the new security assistance package.

If approved, the addition of approximately $800 million in security assistance would bring the total aid to Ukraine to more than $3 billion since the start of the Biden Administration—including nearly $2.5 billion since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s 2020 defense budget was only about $6 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In less than two months, the United States has provided nearly half of that in security assistance, underscoring the pace at which the White House has worked to send in weaponry and equipment.

U.S. shipments of an $800 million security assistance package approved in mid-March will likely wrap up by the middle of April, a senior defense official said Tuesday. And a $100 million package of Javelin anti-armor systems approved in early April will also likely complete delivery very soon, the official added. These packages came from Defense Department inventories, making it relatively easy and quick to transfer the weapons and systems to Ukraine.

According to a draft list of the shipment described to CNN that had been sent to Congress, the Administration was considering the delivery of weapons systems to Ukraine that would include MI-17 helicopters, coastal sea drones, Howitzers, armored Humvees, and other weapons that had been in previous aid packages.

As of Tuesday night, two sources said helicopters had been removed from the list, which officials say is heavily caveated, with items regularly changed or removed up until it receives the final authorization and signature from Biden.

On April 1, the White House also authorized a separate $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine, but this package will take more time, since it has to be procured from defense contractors first.

Research contact: @CNN