Pentagon unveils $988M aid to bolster Ukraine before transition
Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin announced on Saturday a new military aid package for Ukraine, including the purchase of missiles and drones worth 988 million Canadian dollars. This is part of the current administration's efforts to fully utilize the resources available to support Ukraine before the change of power in Washington.
The new aid package contains only three items: ammunition for the HIMARS artillery rocket systems, unmanned aerial systems, and additional equipment and spare parts. The weapons will go to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), meaning they will not be transferred from U.S. military stockpiles but purchased from manufacturers. The "HIMARS ammunition" category usually includes ATACMS ballistic missiles.
During the annual Reagan National Defence Forum in California, Austin announced the new package five days after the last package worth 425 million Canadian dollars. In his speech, he emphasized that the current administration "made its choice" regarding assistance to Ukraine and obtained the support of politicians from both parties in Washington, but now "the next administration must make its own choice." He added that President Ronald Reagan—the patron of the event, organized at his presidential library in Simi Valley—would stand with Ukraine, American security, and human freedom.
The outgoing U.S. administration is trying to use all the resources allocated by Congress for aid to Ukraine by the end of its term, i.e., January 20. According to media reports, it will not be able to fulfill this promise, among other reasons, due to logistical obstacles and concerns about excessively depleting its own arsenals.
According to Reuters, the administration still has slightly more than one billion Canadian dollars available within the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund and is authorized to transfer U.S. own weapons worth 6 billion Canadian dollars to Ukraine.
This past week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that in the coming weeks, Ukraine will receive "hundreds of thousands" of artillery ammunition and "thousands" of missiles to position Kyiv in the best possible stance. However, he did not repeat the promise to use all available resources.
Unused funds
Unused funds will remain available to new U.S. President Donald Trump, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Saturday.
Trump has previously criticized the costs of supporting Kyiv and promised to end the war in Ukraine before officially taking office. According to Gen. Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump as a special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, one way to prompt Ukraine to negotiate would be to threaten withholding aid, while another way to prompt Russia to the negotiating table would be to threaten increasing support for Kyiv.
