President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden Photo: Associated Press
The administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing to announce a new $1.2bn package of military assistance to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This was reported by Reuters, citing its sources. The package will include air defence interceptors and artillery ammunition, but the exact composition of the aid will be revealed in the coming days.
Under the USAI programme, new weapons are purchased from defence manufacturers or partner countries, rather than being taken from the Pentagon’s stockpile. This means that it can take several months or even years for new weapons to arrive on the battlefield.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States has already allocated $175 billion in support to Kyiv, of which about $61.4 billion has been allocated for security assistance. Half of this amount came through the USAI programme, while the rest was used from existing military stockpiles under presidential authority. To date, the balance of presidential authority for reductions is $5.6 billion.
