By Anthony Capaccio, Jennifer Jacobs, and Peter Martin of Bloomberg
President Joe Biden called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and vowed to provide an additional $1 billion in security assistance for the country as it seeks to stave off Russian forces in eastern battle zones.
“I informed President Zelenskiy that the United States is providing another $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, including additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems that the Ukrainians need to support their defensive operations in the Donbas,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.
The weapons package includes for the first time launchers for vehicle-mounted Harpoon anti-ship missiles, according to people familiar with the matter. Denmark has said it will supply the missiles. The US package also includes $320 million for secure radios and related equipment, $55 million for thermal night-vision optics and $160 million for training, according to one of the people.
The funding comes from two separate US lines of authority. About $350 million of the $1 billion in weapons will come from existing US stocks, including more 155mm Howitzers and ammunition, more Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and four M1089A1 recovery vehicles, according to a person familiar with the package.
The announcement comes as Ukrainian officials have pleaded for more advanced weapons to be delivered faster to fend off Russian advances in the east. Zelenskiy said the war may stagnate if deliveries from Ukraine’s allies don’t accelerate.
In Brussels, where NATO ministers are meeting, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they are providing even more weapons in many cases than Ukraine has sought. Milley said 97,000 anti-tank systems have been handed over, “more anti-tank systems than there are tanks in the world.”
“When you’re in a fight you can never get enough and never get it quick enough,” Austin told reporters after saying “we remain focused on Ukraine’s needs, and we understand what those needs are.”
Milley said that while the overall numbers on the battlefield favor Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s forces still face morale, logistics and command and control issues that have bedeviled its efforts to seize Ukraine quickly.
Representative Adam Smith, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the US effort to arm Ukraine ahead of the Biden announcement but also said the quantities of weapons and ammunition need to be increased.
“I also think we need to be giving more sophisticated systems, particularly when it comes to drones and long-range artillery,” Smith said Wednesday at a breakfast meeting of the Defense Writers Group, adding that he thinks the US has been “too cautious” so far.
The US has steadily ratcheted up support for Ukraine while batting away questions about how long the flow of aid will last and whether it would support any deal that included Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the conflict is driving sharp increases in the price of gasoline and food, a bitter political headwind for Biden heading into midterm elections this fall.
“When we decided we were going to help Ukraine -- the point that I was making was that it’s going to cost us too,” Biden said at a June 10 fundraiser.
Others:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/weve-too-cautious-key-lawmaker-154418879.htm
https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/smith-ukraine-long-range/2022/06/16/id/1074721/
https://fcw.com/defense/2022/06/defense-topline-funding-could-see-bump-panel-chairman-says/368234/
https://fcw.com/defense/2022/06/senate-panel-approves-45b-boost-2023-defense-topline/368332/
https://www.eurasiareview.com/17062022-french-german-and-italian-leaders-visit-kyiv/
