Pentagon unveils £785m aid boost for Ukraine amid power shift
Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin announced on Saturday a new military aid package for Ukraine, which includes the purchase of missiles and drones worth approximately £785 million. This is part of the current administration's efforts to fully utilise the resources available to support Ukraine before the change of power in Washington.
The new aid package contains only three items: ammunition for the HIMARS artillery rocket systems, unmanned aerial systems, and additional equipment and spare parts. The weapons will be supplied to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This means they will not be transferred from US military stockpiles but purchased from manufacturers. The "HIMARS ammunition" category usually includes ATACMS ballistic missiles.
Austin announced the new package five days after the last package, which was worth about £337 million, during the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California. In his speech, he emphasised that the current administration "made its choice" regarding assistance to Ukraine and secured bipartisan support in Washington. However, he stressed that "the next administration must make its own choice." He added that President Ronald Reagan—the patron of the event, organised at his presidential library in Simi Valley—would stand with Ukraine, American security, and human freedom.
Act before Trump
The outgoing US administration is attempting to utilise all the resources allocated by Congress for aid to Ukraine by the end of its term, which is set for 20th January. According to media reports, this goal may not be achievable, partly due to logistical obstacles and concerns about excessively depleting its own stockpiles.
According to Reuters, the administration still has slightly more than £793 million available within the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund and is authorised to transfer US-owned weapons worth approximately £4.8 billion to Ukraine.
This past week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that over the coming weeks, Ukraine will receive "hundreds of thousands" of artillery rounds and "thousands" of missiles to position Kyiv as strongly as possible. However, he did not reiterate the promise to use all the available resources.
Unused funds
Potentially unused funds will remain available to the new US President Donald Trump, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Saturday.
Trump has previously criticised the costs of supporting Kyiv and promised to end the war in Ukraine before officially taking office. According to Gen. Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump as a special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, one way to encourage Ukraine to negotiate would be to threaten withholding aid, while a means to bring Russia to the negotiating table would be to threaten increasing support for Kyiv.
