US announces new $1.3bn military aid package for Ukraine

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday announced a new $1.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine featuring air defence systems, anti-tank missiles, drones and other equipment.The package is part of US efforts to meet “Ukraine´s pressing requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities while also building the enduring capacity of Ukraine´s armed forces,” the Defence Department said in a statement.

The assistance will not immediately arrive on the battlefield, as it falls under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), under which Washington procures equipment from the defence industry or partners, rather than drawing it from US stocks.

The package includes four NASAMs air defence systems and related munitions, TOW anti-tank missiles, 152 mm artillery shells, drones as well as counter-drone systems, and various vehicles. The announcement comes as Ukrainian forces are fighting to advance against invading Russian troops in a slow-moving counteroffensive that Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukraine´s president, said on Wednesday “will be quite difficult, long and will take quite a lot of time.”

Podolyak also said that Kyiv´s forces need two to three hundred tanks as well as 60 to 80 F-16 warplanes. The Netherlands and Denmark are leading a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on using the US-made aircraft as part of an 11-nation coalition, but the effort is still in its early stages.

The pace of Ukraine´s advance in the counteroffensive has raised questions about whether it will be successful, but US officials have highlighted the tough obstacles Kyiv´s forces must overcome when asked about the pace of advance.