The US $100 million additional security assistance to Ukraine will include Javelin anti-tank systems, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
“Today, the Biden Administration authorized an additional Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued at up to an additional $100 million to meet an urgent Ukrainian need for additional Javelin anti-armor systems, which the United States has been providing to Ukraine and they have been using so effectively to defend their country. This is the sixth drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021,” Kirby said.
“Combined with $300 million in military assistance announced by the Department on April 1, this brings the total U.S. security assistance commitment to Ukraine to more than $2.4 billion since the beginning of the Biden Administration and more than $1.7 billion since the beginning of Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked invasion on February 24,” he said.
Kirby said the United States will continue to work closely with its Ukrainian partners.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said military “assistance” to Ukraine, in particular the supply of lethal weapons by the West, is irresponsible, and its uncontrolled distribution could pose a threat to European states. The supply of weapons to Ukraine is a mistake, it increases casualties, but does not affect the outcome of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the Russian military has said.
Meanwhile, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall during remarks at the Space Symposium said the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has served as a wake-up call showing that more investment is required in security.
“It is not at all clear at this time how it’s all going to end, it’s a wake-up call that this sort of thing can happen,” Kendall said at the press conference, stressing there needed to be an investment in security on Tuesday. “And we need to do it with our partners around the world.”
Kendall added that there is going to be a lot of lessons learned from the situation by many different parties.
The US, he added, needs to sort out what it implies for future investments. The process has just started, Kendall added, and there is a long way to go.
“I hate to say there’s any silver lining in this but I think the fact that there’s more awareness of the possibility of threats like this and more awareness about what the commercial world can provide to help resist and deter something like that and we’ll move forward from there,” Kendall said.
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