- Ukraine is running out of ammunition in its fight with Russia
- The Pentagon has a solution while it waits for money from Congress
- Republicans in the House of Representatives still need to pass a $95 billion security package
The United States is preparing a new $300 military aid package for Ukraine, while Republicans in the House of Representatives continue to block funding for the war-torn country.
The aid will be paid for from the Pentagon’s savings from previous contracts it negotiated.
“I am announcing an emergency security assistance package worth $300 billion in weapons and equipment to address some of Ukraine’s urgent needs,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.
“This is possible because of unexpected cost savings in contracts that DOD negotiated to replace equipment we already sent to Ukraine through previous drawdowns. When we sent weapons to Ukraine last year, we negotiated contracts to replenish those weapons in U.S. stockpiles.”
‘It turns out that we negotiated well and that the contracts remained within budget. So we have a modest budget available. and to put a nice point on it. we can use these cost savings to make this modest amount of security assistance available now without impacting U.S. military readiness.
A local resident collects belongings in the ruins of a destroyed house on the outskirts of Makiivka (Makeyevka) in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, as the Pentagon has found a way to send more weapons to the war-torn country
The House of Representatives has not passed a $95 billion security package that boosts aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indian Ocean. It has already been approved by the Senate.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has opposed putting the bill up for a vote because many in his conservative wing are opposed to sending more money to Ukraine.
Sullivan emphasized that the money does not replace the security package on Capitol Hill.
“I will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the coming weeks. “It goes without saying: this package does not replace and should not delay the critical need to breach bipartisan national security,” he noted.
The new tranche of aid will include a number of Army Tactical Missile Systems, along with Anti-Personnel/Anti-Materiel, or APAM, an older version of the long-range ATACMS, which travels 100 miles and carries warheads containing hundreds of cluster bombs. Politico reported this.
The Pentagon has been unable to send additional weapons to Kiev since December, when it ran out of money to replenish its stockpiles.
Reports from Ukraine indicate that soldiers are running low on ammunition as the country battles Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
President Joe Biden (left) has pushed House Speaker Mike Johnson (right) to approve a $95 billion security package that includes funding for Ukraine
A fighter jet flies during a funeral of Ukrainian military fighter pilot Lieutenant Colonel Andrii Tkachenko, who was shot down while flying over the Donetsk region during the Russian attack on Ukraine
The Pentagon has sent $10 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, but is now trying to get appropriators in Congress to approve more money.
On Monday, Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, urged lawmakers to approve more military aid to Ukraine. He told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it was “difficult to imagine how Ukraine” could hold territory it reclaimed from Russia without more help from Washington.