The USA announced the provision of additional aid to Ukraine in the amount of $175 million.
This is stated in the message of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The new package includes air defenses, additional munitions for HIMARS systems, artillery ammunition, high-speed anti-radar missiles and anti-tank missiles.
"If Congress does not approve the presidentʼs request for additional national security funding, this will be one of the last security assistance packages we can provide to Ukraine," Blinken said.
The Pentagon later clarified the list of weapons being transferred. It:
- AIM-9M and AIM-7 anti-aircraft missiles;
- ammunition for HIMARS reactive artillery systems;
- ammunition for 155 mm and 105 mm artillery;
- AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles;
- TOW anti-tank guided missiles;
- Javelin and AT-4 portable anti-tank missile systems;
- vehicles, mine-clearing munitions, more than 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition, spare parts and support equipment, and equipment to protect "critical national infrastructure". What exactly the latter means, the Pentagon does not specify.
Back in September, the White House asked Congress to approve a $106 billion funding package, of which over $61 billion is allocated to Ukraine, and the rest to help Israel, Taiwan, and protect the border with Mexico. The issue of border protection has become central to the disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. It is this that slows down the approval of the request of the White House.
This week, the White House warned that the US is running out of money to supply Ukraine with weapons and equipment. This is stated in the official letter that the director of the Office of Budget Management, Shalanda Young, sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. According to her information, by mid-November, the US Department of Defense had used 97% of the $62.3 billion in additional funding it received, and the State Department had used all $4.7 billion in military aid allocated to it.
As the Reuters agency wrote, the United States attracted large investments in the economy thanks to military aid to Ukraine. So Washington released data on which states benefited the most financially from military aid to Ukraine in order to bolster support from Republicans who opposed the continuation of military aid.