US to send Ukraine another $275M in weapons, equipment

The Pentagon will send Ukraine another $275 million in weapons and military equipment as part of a new package meant to help shore up Kyiv’s forces ahead of winter fighting, the Defense Department announced Friday.

The package will include more ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), 500 precision-guided 155 mm artillery rounds, 2,000 155 mm rounds of remote anti-armor mine systems, more than 1,300 anti-armor systems, 125 Humvees, small arms and over 2.75 million rounds of small arms ammunition and four satellite communications antennas, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.  

The lethal aid will come via presidential drawdown authority, meaning the U.S. military will pull weapons from its own stockpiles to send to Ukraine. The U.S. has now committed more than $18.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, Singh said.

While there are no new weapons in the U.S. package, the additional aid is meant to restock critical weapons systems already in Ukrainian hands. Among those systems is HIMARS, which Kyiv’s forces have used to push Russian troops from chunks of Ukrainian land in its counteroffensive begun at the start of September.

“Some of the equipment and systems that are mentioned are having everyday impacts that we’re seeing on the battlefield and that’s why we are providing more,” Singh said.

Ukrainians are still waiting on other major weapons systems, including the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), which could be used to knock down targets in the sky including drones, ballistic missiles or fighter jets.

The weapon is expected to be delivered early next month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Thursday.   

The U.S. has committed two of the air defense systems to Kyiv, which continues to press Western nations for more of the critical capability.   

Singh said a Pentagon training program for Ukrainians to operate NASAMS “will conclude soon,” and once finished “the system will be ready for delivery to Ukraine.”

The latest aid package comes as Ukrainian troops are in the midst of a battle to retake the southern city of Kherson.