The U.S. has approved a new $225 million weapons aid package for Ukraine, which includes providing Kyiv with an additional Patriot air defense battery.
The new tranche of security assistance was announced following a meeting Thursday between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., where allies this week detailed an extensive plan for donating air defense capabilities to Kyiv.
“Two days ago I announced a historic donation of air defense equipment to Ukraine. Today, I’m proud to announce a new security assistance package for Ukraine. This will be the eighth package I’ve authorized since we’ve signed the national security [supplemental] bill,” Biden said ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy. “And we’re working with our NATO allies to ensure that Ukraine is flying F-16s this summer. And we’ve shown the world that we stand with Ukraine now and in the future.”
The air defense package announced at this week’s NATO summit includes the U.S., Germany and Romania donating RTX [RTX]-produced Patriot batteries, the Netherlands “and other partners” providing Patriot components “to enable the operation of an additional Patriot battery,” and Italy donating a SAMP-T air defense system (Defense Daily, July 10).
U.S. and NATO partners also plan to provide Ukraine with dozens of additional tactical air defense systems in the coming months, to include NASAMS, HAWKs, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS, and Gepard systems
“I want to thank President Biden following his support and statement following the Russian strike on the children’s hospital in Kyiv [on Monday]. This is our largest children’s hospital and it was a direct hit by the Russian missile. This is why we greatly appreciate your decisions to strengthen our air defense [with] the five new Patriots and dozens of other systems,” Zelenskyy said ahead of his meeting with Biden on Thursday.
The new $225 million weapons aid package, the 61st to include capabilities pulled from existing Pentagon inventories, also includes plans to provide Ukraine with additional interceptors for NASAMS air defense systems, more ammunition for HIMARS launchers, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, TOW missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems and small arms ammunition.
As part of a new $2.3 billion weapons aid package detailed last week, the U.S. announced plans to purchase $2.2 billion worth of Patriots and NASAMS interceptors to bolster Kyiv’s air defense capabilities using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds (Defense Daily, July 3).
The White House also recently confirmed it would prioritize sending air defense interceptors to Ukraine, including Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 missiles for Patriot and RTX’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles for NASAMS, that were intended for delivery to other countries under Foreign Military Sales cases (Defense Daily, June 20).
The U.S.’ new security assistance arrives as NATO agreed to a new package of commitments for Ukraine this week to include establishing a new NATO command in Wiesbaden, Germany to facilitate equipping and training for Ukraine, offering long-term security assistance commitments, building on the already 20 bilateral security agreements with Kyiv and furthering interoperability efforts.
NATO also agreed on spending at least 40 billion euros in the next year on further weapons aid for Kyiv (Defense Daily, July 8).
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have cited the substantial Ukraine package and commitments made at this week’s summit as a key marker for continuing to build on Ukraine’s “bridge” to NATO membership at some point in the future.
“Ukraine’s future is in NATO. I welcome [Ukraine’s] progress on reforms. And as [Ukraine] continues this important work, we will support you on your irreversible path to NATO membership,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference alongside Zelenskyy on Thursday.
Stoltenberg and Zelenskyy were also asked on Thursday about any updates related to limitations placed on Ukraine’s use of donated weapons, with the Biden administration having previously approved allowing Ukraine to use some U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia near Kharkiv for counter-fire purposes.
“I welcome that allies have reduced or loosened their restrictions and there’s no doubt that Ukraine has the right to use weapons they have received and their own weapons…to hit legitimate military targets on Russian territory,” Stoltenberg said.
Zelenskyy added he has had discussions with U.S., U.K. and NATO leaders on potentially lifting limitations as it relates to the use of weapons to strike into Russian territory.
“If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and defend it, we need to lift all the limitations,” Zelenskyy said. “We understand from [which] military bases [Russia] attacks us. And if they attacked us and killed our children in the hospital, that is a crazy question [of] why we can’t answer and attack these…military bases where these guided bombs from jets or missiles came.”