The US will send $820 million in aid to Ukraine, including missile systems

WASHINGTON — The United States announced Friday that it will provide Ukraine with $820 million in new military aid, including anti-aircraft missile systems and counter-artillery radars for response Russia’s big bet on long-range strikes in the war.

Russia in the last days launched dozens of rockets in Ukraine and Ukrainian forces were pressed by continuous fire sometimes for hours. Ukraine’s leaders have publicly called on Western allies to quickly send more ammunition and advanced systems to help them close the gap in equipment and manpower.

In all, the U.S. has provided more than $8.8 billion in arms and military training to Ukraine, whose leaders have turned to Western allies for help to fend off Russia’s larger and better-equipped forces. About $7 billion of this aid was announced after Russia invaded in February.

“We will support Ukraine as long as it takes,” President Joe Biden said this week at a press conference during the NATO summit in Madrid. He argued that Russia had already suffered from Western sanctions imposed in connection with the invasion on its international standing and serious damage to its economy.

The U.S. is giving the Ukrainians “the potential” so that “they can continue to resist Russian aggression,” Biden said. “So I don’t know how it will end, but it will not end with Russia defeating Ukraine in Ukraine.”

As part of the new package, the US will buy two systems known as NASAMS, an anti-aircraft system developed by Norway that is used to protect the airspace around the White House and the Capitol in Washington. The Pentagon will also hand over up to 150,000 155-millimeter artillery ammunition to the Ukrainians.

The Pentagon will also provide additional munitions for the medium-range missile systems it delivered to Ukraine in June, known as High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems, or HIMARS. The ammunition will come from the Ministry of Defense’s own stockpiles under what is known as a withdrawal permit. This is already the 14th package of military weapons and equipment transferred to Ukraine from the warehouses of the Ministry of Defense since August 2021.

According to Western officials and analysts, the war has turned into a difficult stalemate in which both sides rely heavily on artillery. While Russia has fallen short of its initial goals of toppling Ukraine’s government, it is believed to be making slow progress in consolidating its control over the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbass.