US Preparing $6 Billion Ukraine Arms Package: Officials
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The US Defense Department is preparing to announce a new $6 billion package of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, including Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, artillery shells, and drones, according to anonymous US officials.
The package will also include HIMARS rockets, air-to-air missiles, and counter-drone weapons, the officials told Politico.
Washington has already rushed $1 billion worth of ammunition to Kyiv from US military stocks since President Biden signed a $61 billion Ukraine aid bill.
However, the pending $6 billion will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), meaning it is newly contracted from the US defense industry.
"It likely won't arrive in Ukraine for several years," Politico noted.
The $61 billion aid package was approved this week after months of delay in Congress, with Republicans ultimately allowing it to pass without major changes. The Republicans, who held it up in the House of Representatives, signed off on it without securing any significant changes from the Democrats.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had blamed the aid suspension for recent battlefield setbacks.
Most Western media predict the new funding will turn the tide for Ukraine.
An analysis published by the Economist on Thursday went so far as to suggest that the bill may have prevented a Russian offensive this summer, which Moscow “might have hoped” to use to “force a Ukrainian surrender on humiliating terms.”
However, the Kremlin has dismissed the aid as unable to change the dynamics favoring Russia. "The only thing the new US funding will do is get more Ukrainians killed," said President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to RT.
