US announces 'largest to date' $6 billion military aid package for Ukraine

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a $6 billion military aid package for Ukraine on Friday (Apr 26). Austin said that this is the largest aid package to date, which will allow the US to buy weapons for the Ukrainian military, including Patriot missiles.

How will the aid package strengthen Ukraine's military?

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“This is the largest security assistance packagethat we’vecommitted to date. It will include critical interceptors for Ukraine’s patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, more counter drone systems and support equipment, significant amounts of artillery ammunition, and air to ground munitions and maintenance and sustainment support,” theUS Defense Secretary said during a press conference.

The announcement came after a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that was held on Friday morning.

Earlier onWednesday (Apr 24),the Defense Department announced a $1 billion package for Ukraine, and President Biden signed a national security supplemental into law. The aid package announced on Wednesday included weapons thatcan be immediately usedon the battlefieldsuchas stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions, etc.

How will the delivery of military equipment be coordinated?

The military equipmentunder the $6 billion package might take some time to arrive as it falls under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), in which instead of giving straight from inventory,equipmentispurchased. Austin assured that the Pentagon is “going to move as fast as we can to get them the capability as fast as industry can produce.”

Charles Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was present with Austin, said, “They’ve had toration conservemunitions over time. And so with this package and the follow-on factors because of the supplemental, gives them a bit more flexibilityto be ableto operate and use that capability effectively against the Russian threat.”