US to announce $3 billion in new military aid for Ukraine

The United States will announce a new security assistance package for Ukraine of about $3 billion as early as Wednesday, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, in what would be the single largest tranche to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion six months ago.

The package is being prepared to coincide with Ukraine’s independence day on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The package uses funds from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) appropriated by Congress to allow the Biden administration to procure weapons from industry rather than taking weapons from existing U.S. weapons stocks.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the new weapons did not appear to include types of arms that had not been provided previously to the Ukrainian military. But the official said it would focus on ammunition and more medium-term objectives like defense systems.

Under the USAI, the weapons could take months to arrive in Europe given that companies have to procure them, Reuters reported.

The official said the amount and mix of weapons could change before the formal announcement.

Since Russian troops invaded on Feb. 24 in what Russian President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine, the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought primarily in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Washington has provided $10.6 billion in military assistance to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government since Feb. 24.