Exclusive: U.S. readies new $1 billion Ukraine weapons package

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by KindArgument0
image for Exclusive: U.S. readies new $1 billion Ukraine weapons package

A view shows a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is being fired in an undisclosed location, in Ukraine in this still image obtained from an undated social media video uploaded on June 24, 2022 via Pavlo Narozhnyy/via REUTERS/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Biden administration's next security assistance package for Ukraine is expected to be $1 billion, one of the largest so far, and include munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, three sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The package is expected to be announced as early as Monday and would add to about $8.8 billion in aid the United States has given Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that President Joe Biden had not yet signed the next weapons package. They cautioned that weapons packages can change in value and content before they are signed.

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However, if signed in its current form, it would be valued at $1 billion and include munitions for HIMARS, NASAMS surface-to-air missile system ammunition and as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports.

The new package follows a recent Pentagon decision to allow Ukrainians to receive medical treatment at a U.S. military hospital in Germany near Ramstein air base. read more

Last Monday, the Pentagon announced a separate security assistance package for Ukraine valued at up to $550 million, including additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The White House declined to comment on the package.

The new package would be funded under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

HIMARS play a key role in the artillery duel between Ukraine and Russia has been described as "grinding" with very little movement of the front line in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Since Russian troops poured over the border in February in what Putin termed a "special military operation", the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought primarily in the east and south of Ukraine.

Moscow is trying to gain control of the largely Russian-speaking Donbas, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, where pro-Moscow separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014.

So far the United States has sent 16 HIMARS to Ukraine and on July 1 pledged to send two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). read more

It was unclear if the NASAMS launchers, made jointly by Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX.N) and Norway's Kongsberg (KOG.OL), are already in Ukraine if the munitions were for launchers donated by another country, or if they were being prepositioned.

The United States previously committed 200 M113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

The armored personnel carriers outfitted with medical equipment could make the fight with Russia more survivable for Ukrainian troops who could then be sent to Germany for further medical treatment.

The Kyiv government said in June that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed per day.

Reporting by Idrees Ali and Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Zaelers on August 6th, 2022 at 07:41 UTC »

US Military Industry go brrrrrrr

HolyGig on August 6th, 2022 at 05:20 UTC »

Not many if any countries can supply someone like the US is arming Ukraine lol.

Each of these aid packages has hundreds of thousands of 155mm artillery shells and at least 1000 HIMARS rockets (we don't actually know how many) along with countless other massive items like trucks, fuel, ammunition, drones etc. If you have any idea how much this stuff weighs you might be like "how in the fuck..." but the US just moves it all thousands of miles away seemingly effortlessly.

HappySkullsplitter on August 6th, 2022 at 04:02 UTC »

However, if signed in its current form, it would be valued at $1 billion and include munitions for HIMARS, NASAMS surface-to-air missile system ammunition, as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports and 100 of Cyberdyne Systems' new experimenal Model 101