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WASHINGTON – The United States will provide Ukraine with up to $1.2 billion to purchase additional air defense missiles, artillery ammunition and satellite imagery from commercial companies, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The financial aid is part of a program called the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative, which allows Kyiv to buy goods directly from the defense industry.
“The USAI gives us the ability to leverage the power and capabilities of the private sector to support the medium and long term security assistance needs of Ukraine,” said Brig. General Patrick S. Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, Tuesday afternoon in a briefing for reporters.
From 2016 to 2021, the US gave Kyiv more than $1.32 billion as part of the same initiative, according to government records. The new aid announcement brings the total provided under the same initiative since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, to nearly $14.6 billion.
The funds provided as part of the initiative are for the purchase of attack drones, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Soviet and NATO caliber artillery ammunition, coastal defense missiles, armored river ships, M1 Abrams tanks, NASAMS air defense missile launchers, M142 HIMARS vehicles and rockets which is guided which is fired among others.
The goods will arrive in Ukraine in the coming months and years, as defense companies produce them. The aid announced on Tuesday is separate from 37 previously announced military hardware aid packages taken from the Pentagon’s stockpile starting in August 2021, with a cumulative total of at least $21 billion.
The main focus of the new $1.2 billion fund for Ukraine will be to buy air defense missiles for Kyiv to use to repel Russian airstrikes, General Ryder said. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has been repeatedly targeted by Russian attacks, including on Monday and early Tuesday.
“We will continue to accelerate our air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and help Ukraine defend its citizens from Russian cruise missiles and Iranian drones,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to be doing in the near term and the long term.”
General Ryder also confirmed reports that the American-made Patriot air defense system supplied to Ukraine shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile last Thursday.
The Kinzhal, which is an air-launched version of the Iskander ballistic missile, is believed to meet the definition of a hypersonic weapon – meaning it can fly and maneuver at speeds equal to or greater than five times the speed of sound, a feature. means to defeat antimissile defenses.
In addition to the U.S.-supplied Patriot system, the Ukrainians also operate one provided by the Netherlands, General Ryder said, but he deferred to asking the Ukrainian government which was used to engage Russia’s Kinzhal.
Aishwarya Kavi contribute reports.
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