Washington: As Ukrainian and Western leaders try to determine the effects of the brief weekend uprising in Russia, the Pentagon will announce it is sending up to $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including more than 50 heavily armoured vehicles and an infusion of missiles for air defence systems.
The assistance is intended to strengthen Ukraine's counteroffensive, which has been advancing slowly thus far. In the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin's and the Wagner mercenary group that he has controlled's brief uprising, it was unclear on Monday whether Ukrainian forces would be able to exploit the confusion in the Russian ranks.
On Tuesday, a statement regarding the aid package is anticipated. The US would be supplying military hardware through presidential drawdown authority for the 41st time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The programme enables the Pentagon to quickly deliver goods to Ukraine from its own inventories.
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The contents of the aid packages were probably not chosen based on the weekend uprising because they are typically planned in advance and recently included many of the same essential weapons for the battlefield.
However, the Wagner Group leader and Russia's military brass have been engaged in a growing feud, and there are simmering concerns about how many of Prigozhin's forces may withdraw from the conflict. Ukraine can take advantage of this by using missiles and heavy vehicles.
The mercenaries travelled hundreds of miles towards Moscow before turning back after less than 24 hours on Saturday after leaving Ukraine to take control of a military headquarters in a city in southern Russia.
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The US will send 25 armoured Stryker vehicles and 30 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine, along with missiles for the Patriot air defence system and the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The package will include a variety of artillery rounds, other ammunition, demolition munitions, high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) and Javelin missiles, as well as equipment for clearing obstacles.
Due to the fact that the assistance has not yet been made public, the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Since the Russian invasion, the US has committed an additional $6.2 billion in unspecified supplies in addition to delivering more than $15 billion in weapons and equipment from its stockpiles to Ukraine.
The military services overestimated the value of the weapons they took off the shelves and shipped to Ukraine over the past year, which led to the over $6 billion in additional costs.
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More generally, the US has also committed to sending $2 billion in additional foreign military financing in addition to more than $16.7 billion in longer-term funding for various weapons, training, and equipment through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
The US has drawdown authority worth at least $1.2 billion that hasn't yet been committed but will run out on September 30 of this fiscal year. The remaining $1.9 billion in USAI funds won't run out until September 2024, the end of the following fiscal year.