{UAH} FRIENDS AS WE CAUTIONED YESTERDAY -HERE WE GO WITH HAT HAS HAPPENED TODAY

Biden Announces $2.5 Billion in Security Aid to Ukraine

The Treasury Department also released an additional $3.4 billion in budget aid as the Biden administration rushes assistance to Kyiv in its final weeks in office.

A destroyed Ukrainian tank in the country’s Kharkiv region this month. The latest tranche of U.S. aid will include air defense, artillery and other critical weapons systems, President Biden said on Monday.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

By Helene Cooper

Reporting from Washington

Dec. 30, 2024Updated 11:34 a.m. ET

The United States is sending nearly $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, as the Biden administration continues to rush military aid to Kyiv in the weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

The aid will include air defense, artillery and other critical weapons systems, President Biden said in a statement on Monday morning.

“I’ve directed my administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” he said, “including drawing down older U.S. equipment for Ukraine, rapidly delivering it to the battlefield and then revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base to modernize and replenish our stockpiles with new weapons.”

The package includes $1.25 billion from existing Pentagon stockpiles. An additional $1.22 billion will come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program that allows military equipment to be procured from the defense industry or partners and sent to Ukraine.

Separately, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement on Monday that the administration had released $3.4 billion in additional budget aid to Ukraine. The support, which is provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, “marks the final disbursement of funds appropriated under the bipartisan Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024,” the Treasury statement said. “Our direct budget support continues to be conditioned on reforms related to strengthening law enforcement, improving transparency and efficiency of government institutions, and bolstering anticorruption rules and procedures.”

The additional support comes amid concerns in Ukraine that the Trump administration could cut off military aid to the country. Mr. Trump has vowed to end the war there quickly, though he has not said how. But Vice President-elect JD Vance has outlined a plan that would allow Russia to keep the Ukrainian territory it has seized.

The new tranche will be the single largest that the United States has sent to Ukraine since April, when the House approved new aid after a monthslong hold.

Pentagon officials said this month that the Biden administration was unlikely to spend all of the remaining $5.6 billion that Congress has allocated to send weapons and other military help to Ukraine. It is difficult to rush the remaining amount to the battlefield before the Trump administration begins next month, officials said.

The $1.22 billion that the Biden administration is sending from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative does essentially use up the money that remained in that program.

Russia has been waging war in Ukraine — which has now spread back into Russia itself — for almost three years. The White House said last week that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region of Russia, with a few choosing suicide over surrender.

The heavy losses of North Koreans, who began arriving in Russia this fall, would amount to almost 10 percent of their deployment figures to the country. The announcement was the latest turn in the U.S. effort to publicly criticize both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, for sending ill-prepared and ill-equipped troops to a foreign front line to aid Russian efforts.

In August, Ukrainian forces advanced into Russian territory, shocking the Kremlin and surprising even the United States. It was the first time in 10 years of fighting between the two countries that Ukrainian troops had taken and held Russian territory, including during Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

U.S. officials initially expressed skepticism about the wisdom of Ukraine’s incursion and said it might drain resources badly needed on the front lines. But some American officials have changed their assessment, saying that Ukraine has so far managed to kill a large number of counterattacking Russian forces without incurring many casualties.

Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent. More about Helene Cooper

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U.S. DepartmentofDefense

·         

Release

Immediate Release

Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine

Dec. 30, 2024    

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance support to meet Ukraine's critical security and defense needs as part of the surge of security assistance the President directed to put Ukraine in the best possible position. This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $1.25 billion, to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons.

In addition, DoD announced an approximately $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package to provide Ukraine with additional air defense, air-to-ground, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other capabilities to fight Russian aggression.

The capabilities in this announcement include:

•    Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
•    HAWK air defense munitions;
•    Stinger missiles;
•    Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS) munitions;
•    Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
•    155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition;
•    Air-to-ground munitions;
•    High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs);
•    Unmanned Aerials Systems (UAS);
•    Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
•    Tube-launched, Optically guided, Wire-tracked (TOW) missiles;
•    Small arms and ammunition and grenades;
•    Demolitions equipment and munitions; 
•    Secure communications equipment;
•    Commercial satellite imagery services;
•    Medical equipment;
•    Clothing and individual equipment; and
•    Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation.

This is the Biden Administration's twenty-third USAI package and seventy-third tranche of equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.

The United States continues to work together with some 50 Allies and partners through the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and its associated Capability Coalitions to provide the support Ukraine needs to prevail in its fight against Russian aggression.

Publication: Ukraine Fact Sheet – Dec. 30, 2024

Ukraine response Biden president