IRIA News

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin unveiled a historic $6 billion military assistance program for Ukraine, marking the largest single aid package thus far. This initiative would empower the U.S. to procure state-of-the-art equipment from its defense industry to bolster the Ukrainian defense against Russian invasion.

It is the second time within a week that the U.S. has announced a military aid package for Ukraine. Earlier last week, the U.S. announced a $1 billion package that would quickly provide equipment to Ukraine from U.S. stocks. The announcement of the latest military aid package comes after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a much-delayed bill to provide a total of $61 billion of new funding for Ukraine.

The package includes increased munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), along with supplementary equipment for integrating Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars into Ukraine’s current arsenal, much of which remains rooted in the Soviet era technology.

“This is the largest security assistance package that we’ve committed to date. It will include critical interceptors for Ukraine’s patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, more counter-drone systems and support equipment, significant amounts of artillery ammunition, and air-to-ground munitions and maintenance and sustainment support,” Austin said during a press conference following the 21st Ukraine Contact Group meeting.

For the past two years, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group has stood together to surge critical capabilities for Ukraine.

We have made and changed history.

Today, our message today is clear: we will continue to stand united in support of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/LwYgOHvyWL

— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) April 26, 2024

The package also covers the acquisition of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), along with Switchblade and Puma drones, counter-drone systems, and artillery.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group is a coalition of about 50 nations that meets monthly to discuss Ukraine’s defense needs. The Allies held the first meeting in April 2022 and since then participating nations have collectively provided more than $95 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the U.S. has provided more than $44 billion worth of weaponry, maintenance, training, and spare parts to Ukraine. Included in the armaments provided to Ukraine were Abrams M1A1 battle tanks.

U.S. Defense Secretary Austin said, “Our contact group partners have contributed most of the counter-UAS [unmanned aerial] systems provided to Ukraine and most of the 155 mm artillery systems, most of the tanks, most of the armored personnel carriers, most of the infantry fighting vehicles, and more. Throughout Putin’s war of choice, these contributions have been crucial, and they’ve saved countless Ukrainian lives.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been stressing to his partners and allies to provide more units of Patriots or other similar air defense systems. He also echoed his demands during the latest Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries gathering virtually in a Pentagon-led meeting.

Responding to Zelenskyy’s request, Austing said that the U.S. would provide Ukraine with extra Patriot missiles for its air defense systems. Additionally, he mentioned that the U.S. was supplying more ATACMS ballistic missiles.

Upon being asked about the importance of ATACMS ballistic missiles, Austin clarified that while they were not a singular solution enabling Ukraine to reverse the situation against Russia on the battlefield, they proved to be an effective weapon when used in conjunction with other munitions.

The latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group marked the second anniversary of the initiative, during which Austin remarked that the group had spared no effort to procure millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket systems, armored vehicles, and even jets to assist Ukraine in repelling Russia.