ALBAWABA - US Secretary of Defense, Antony Blinken took to X to officially announce that Washington will be granting Ukraine a new military aid package worth approximately $2.3 billion.
The announcement comes a day after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would soon provide Kyiv with more air defense interceptors and critical munitions. "The Biden Administration plans to accelerate delivery of these munitions by re-sequencing upcoming Foreign Military Sales deliveries for Ukraine," the Pentagon said in announcing the new package.
According to the Pentagon, the latest package includes $150 million worth of anti-tank weaponry, interceptor missiles, and artillery rounds. This part of the shipment may be expeditiously shipped to Ukraine since it is taken straight from US stockpiles under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA).
Under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a program that takes longer to provide the weaponry but offers longer-term assistance for Kyiv, an extra $2.2 billion will be purchased for Ukraine by US arms makers.
Patriot and NASAMS air defense missiles, two of the weapons that have proven essential in fending off continuous Russian aerial bombardments, are part of the USAI component as well.
Since the $95 billion supplementary assistance package that was passed in April, which includes $61 billion in help for Ukraine, this is also the seventh military aid package for that country.
The US has continued to provide Ukraine with military aid since the supplemental was passed, as part of the Biden administration's efforts to assist Kyiv in slowing down the Russian onslaught that started in May.
Along with providing military support, the US has relaxed several limitations on Ukraine's use of US weapons, enabling Ukrainian forces to deploy US ammunition against Russian soldiers engaged in the attack.
