The Biden administration on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in new aid for Ukraine as it’s determined to escalate the proxy war as much as possible before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
The aid includes $3.4 billion in “direct budget support,” a form of assistance meant to pay for Ukrainian government services, salaries, pensions, and other types of spending. It has also been used to subsidize Ukrainian small businesses and farmers.
“Economic assistance from the United States and our allies is crucial for Ukraine’s ability to defend its sovereignty and achieve a just peace by maintaining the critical government services that underpin its brave fight,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
Yellen said the $3.4 billion was the last remaining funds for budgetary aid from the 2024 Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which was packed into the $95 billion foreign military aid bill President Biden signed into law back in April.
Ukraine is also receiving nearly $2.5 billion in military aid from the US, which includes $1.22 billion from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program that allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine. The remaining military aid is in the form of the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which enables President Biden to ship weapons directly from US military stockpiles.
The Biden administration is dumping more weapons into Ukraine even though there’s no path to a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield as Russian forces continue to make gains in the Donbas and Ukraine’s invading force in Kursk is being pushed out. Biden officials are determined to keep the war going and are even pressuring Ukraine to begin conscripting 18-year-olds.
According to the Pentagon, the new military aid includes:
- 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
- Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation
In recent months, President Biden signed off on several significant escalations in the proxy war, including supporting long-range strikes on Russian territory and the provision of widely banned anti-personnel mines to Ukraine.
Biden asked Congress for an additional $24 billion to spend on Ukraine, but the request was rejected by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who said any decisions on Ukraine aid would be up to Trump.
