Washington The US government has approved new military supplies to Ukraine, this time for $325 million. This was announced by Antony Blinken’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
In order to be able to meet Ukraine’s needs, US President Joe Biden again tapped into American arms stocks: With Tuesday’s approval, Biden made use of the so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for the 40th time.
The USA is thus using the existing US arms contingent to be able to supply Ukraine. Most recently, the Pentagon pumped $3 billion into ammunition purchases from abroad to keep the flow of weapons going.
A debate is raging on Capitol Hill about how long US production can keep up with Ukraine’s arms wear and tear, given that much of Ukraine’s military production is borne by American defense contractors.
Stoltenberg comments on Ukraine’s counter-offensive
The topic is also likely to come up at the NATO summit in Vilnius in early July. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned a few months ago that “Ukraine’s current ammunition spending rate is many times higher than our current production rate”. The defense industry was “under pressure,” Stoltenberg said at the time.
The NATO Secretary General is meeting with Biden in the White House this Tuesday. In his welcome speech, he thanked the US President for the new military aid package.
The NATO Secretary General reports on progress in the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
(Photo: IMAGO/ABACAPRESS)
According to Stoltenberg, the Ukrainian counter-offensive is making “progress”. “The more land Ukrainians can liberate, the stronger their position at the negotiating table will be.” At the same time, he warned that if Russia wins this war, the world will become “more dangerous” because it will encourage other countries, “including China,” to build up military power.
The latest US package includes Stinger anti-aircraft systems, artillery shells, more than a dozen Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, ten Stryker armored personnel carriers and “over 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades,” the ministry said.
The US is the mainstay of Ukraine’s defence. Overall, the Biden administration has approved around $113 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid for the Ukraine war. However, the means are increasingly being debated. Most Republican presidential candidates reject aid to Ukraine. And there is mounting pressure on Biden from Congress to bring about a faster end to the Ukraine war.
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