U.S. President Joe Biden marked Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday with $3 billion in security assistance, Washington’s largest aid package since Russia’s invasion six months ago but one that could take months or even years to arrive in Kyiv.
The aid announcement came as U.S. officials warned that Russia appeared to be planning to launch fresh attacks in coming days on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities.
“The United States of America is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue the fight to defend their sovereignty,” Biden said in a statement announcing the package, noting Kyiv’s “bittersweet” anniversary of independence from Russian-dominated Soviet rule 31 years ago.
The new package uses funds from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) appropriated by Congress to allow the Biden administration to procure weapons from industry, a process that can take time, rather than from existing U.S. weapons stocks.
The speed depends on whether defense companies have assembly lines already working on the weapon, how much capacity they have and how long it could take to adjust schedules if needed.
White House Spokesman John Kirby said the range of weapon systems would take different amounts of time to reach Ukraine, with the surface-to-air and radar systems taking longer.
The Pentagon said the new package would include six additional surface-to-air missile systems known as NASAMS, 24 counter-artillery radars, Puma drones and counter-drone systems known as VAMPIRE.
“(Department of Defense) continues to work with Ukraine to meet both its immediate and longer-term security assistance needs,” the Pentagon statement said.
In total, the United States has committed more than $13.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration in January 2021. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $15.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
Since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24 in what President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine, the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought primarily in the country’s east and south.
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