The Pentagon is reportedly playing catch-up, preparing a military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $1 billion after the House on Saturday finally passed a.
The Pentagon is reportedly playing catch-up, preparing a military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $1 billion after the House on Saturday finally passed a supplemental funding bill to continue supplying Kyiv with the critical weapons it needs to dispel Russian invaders.
The first tranche of military aid from the new supplemental is expected to include much of the same munitions the US has sent in previous packages, which Ukraine has burned through in the six months it took between the supplemental request in October and its passage in the House over the weekend, US officials told The Post on Tuesday.
However, the bill must first jump its last hurdle — final approval in the Senate — before the Biden administration will send any additional aid, though it’s nearly guaranteed to pass.
Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder on Tuesday declined to comment on any pre-construction of the package or detail what would be sent first, but said, “It’s a good assumption to expect that [the next package] will include air-defense capabilities, as well as artillery ammunition.”
“I don’t have anything to announce right now in terms of what that aid could look like. You know, we need to have a law first,” he said.
“… [but] anticipating this, we’re doing everything we can to lean forward to be able to provide additional security assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible, so much more to follow in the days ahead.”
Specifically, those items could include armored vehicles, “Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield,” Reuters reported Tuesday, citing two anonymous US officials.
