Washington (AP) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will send an additional $250 million in weapons and ammunition to Ukraine as part of its continued support for Ukraine. Kyiv counterattack.
The weapons will be drawn from existing US stockpiles and will include demining equipment, artillery shells, missiles, ambulances, and medical equipment, among other items and spare parts, according to the State Department.
“The package will assist Ukrainian forces on the battlefield and bolster their air defenses as Russia continues to launch brutal strikes against the people of Ukraine, including the attacks last week,” White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
The State Department said the package contained AIM-9M air defense missiles, High Mobility Artillery Missile System munitions, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, and more than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
It would have already run out of U.S. funding for this year to provide additional stockpiled equipment to Ukraine, but it realized earlier this year that the Pentagon had overvalued the equipment it had already sent, freeing up more equipment. $6.2 billion in finance.
Ukraine has already received more than $43 billion from the United States since Russia invaded last year. This money has provided weapon systems such as howitzers and millions of rounds of ammunition for the fight against the much larger Russian army. Because of the intense and bloody ground war, now in its eighteenth month, a lot of ammunition and weapons have already been used up.
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Colin Long in Washington and diplomatic writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on apnews.com
