The Biden Administration announced that it will send $6 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine in a long-term contract with the U.S.
Despite facing mounting criticism from Republicans who opposed the recently passed $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, the Biden Administration said on Friday that the country would receive long-term military aid as it continues its war with Russia.
It will “include equipment to augment Ukraine’s air defenses, fires, and artillery, and to sustain capabilities,” according to a statement from the Pentagon. It will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which means it can take months or years for the weapons to arrive.
The new package is different, however, and is provided for in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), an authority now funded by this week’s supplemental, and organized by the 50-nation Ukraine Defense Contact Group. USAI is an authority through which the United States will procure military capabilities from American industry or partners. The Pentagon’s announcement therefore also signals the beginning of a new contracting process to procure more weapons from Ukraine. “This USAI package highlights the strong and unwavering U.S. commitment to meet Ukraine’s most pressing immediate and longer-term capability needs to fight Russian aggression as part of the global coalition we have built with some 50 Allies and partners,” the Pentagon statement said. Via the Epoch Times.
The aid will include munitions for air defense, such as the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAM) and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). It will also include Patriot munitions, Switchblade and Puma drones, counter-drone systems, and artillery.
Since Russia launched its attack against Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. has provided the country with more than $50 billion in security assistance. The Biden Administration claims that its continuous funding of Ukraine’s war with Russia is good for the U.S. economy.
President Joe Biden has said that it is a “smart investment” that will “pay dividends” to U.S. security interests, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claimed the money will “flow through our defense industrial base, creating American jobs in more than 30 states.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused the Biden Administration of funding an open-ended war while the U.S. is over $34 trillion in debt and its southern border remains wide open.
“This is a continuous sick business model that the American government continues,” Greene said, accusing the federal government of funding foreign wars using taxpayer money.
Officials have also warned that continuously handing out billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine, will result in negative impacts on the United States’ own military readiness.