The Pentagon will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, even though the military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10 billion to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its desperate fight against Russia, the White House announced on March 12.
It’s the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of replenishment funds, but $10 billion overdrawn.
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The announcement comes as Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions and efforts to get fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition. U.S. officials have insisted for months that the United States wouldn’t be able to resume weapons deliveries until Congress provided the additional replenishment funds, which are part of the stalled supplemental spending bill.
The replenishment funds have allowed the Pentagon to pull existing munitions, air defense systems and other weapons from its reserve inventories under presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to send to Ukraine and then put contracts on order to replace those weapons, which are needed to maintain U.S. military readiness.
“When Russian troops advance and its guns fire, Ukraine does not have enough ammunition to fire back,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in announcing the $300 million in additional aid.
In Pictures | A look back at the two years of Russia – Ukraine war
Russian armored vehicles are loaded onto railway platforms at a railway station in region not far from Russia-Ukraine border, in the Rostov-on-Don region, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was ordering heavy financial sanctions against Russia, declaring that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law in what he called the “beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Chinese and Indian representatives voting to abstain from a resolution raise their hands during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine on Feb. 25, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation via his smartphone in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 26, 2022. Russian troops stormed toward Ukraine‚Äôs capital and street fighting broke out as city officials urged residents to take shelter. The country’s president refused an American offer to evacuate, insisting that he would stay.
Smoke rising after shelling on the outskirts of the city is pictured from Kyiv, Ukraine February 27, 2022.
FILE – Smoke rise from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine is marking Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a string of foreign dignitaries and officials expected to visit the capital, Kyiv, in solidarity as Ukrainian forces run low on ammunition and weaponry and Western aid hangs in the balance. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
A general view of a residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the village of Serhiivka, Odesa region, Ukraine July 1, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) military exercise in far eastern Russia, outside Vladivostok, on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. The weeklong exercise that began Thursday is intended to showcase growing defense ties between Russia and China and also demonstrate that Moscow has enough troops and equipment to conduct the massive drills even as its troops are engaged in military action in Ukraine.
Bodies are seen next to cars from a civilian convoy, which Ukrainian State Security Service say was hit by a shelling from Russian troops amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the village of Kurylivka in Kharkiv region, Ukraine on October 21, 2022.
Victor Syabro, 68, cuts a plank of wood into smaller pieces for firewood on his land where he and his wife Ludmila, 61, continue to live despite the fact that their home was mostly destroyed by shelling in the summer and their garden was hit as recently as last week as the town continues to receive shelling on a daily basis in Siversk, Ukraine, November 28, 2022. Despite no power, water or services and daily shelling, Victor says they will not leave because it’s their land, where Victor was raised and where five generations have lived.
A family reunites for the first time since Russian troops withdrew from the Kherson region, in Tsentralne, southern Ukraine, Nov. 13, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a news conference during “The inaugural International Summit of the initiative Grain from Ukraine” in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022.
Ukrainian servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 20, 2023.
A firefighter works inside the burnt-out building of the University of Economics and Trade, which was reportedly hit by shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, August 6, 2023.
An employee operates at a production facility of Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 9, 2023.
A Ukrainian serviceman shouts to paramedics in front of bodies killed after a Russian rocket attack on the food market in the city centrer of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine on Sept. 6, 2023.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attend a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia received positive news on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, about their quests to join the European Union but countries in the volatile Balkans region that have waited years longer to become members of the world’s biggest trading bloc appeared to slip back in the queue.
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022.
Ukrainian infantrymen train with French soldiers to learn combat skills, in France, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. With the full-scale war grinding into a second winter, and casualties already counted in the hundreds of thousands continuing to mount on both sides, the training has become crucially important for Ukraine’s chances of victory.
Smoke rises over a residential building after a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 29, 2023.
The United Nations Security Council meets on maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 at United Nations headquarters.
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The Pentagon also has had a separate Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI, which has allowed it to fund longer-term contracts with industry to produce new weapons for Ukraine.
Senior defense officials who briefed reporters said the Pentagon was able to get cost savings in some of those longer-term contracts of roughly $300 million and, given the battlefield situation, decided to use those savings to go ahead and send more weapons. The officials said the cost savings basically offset the new package and keep the replenishment spending underwater at $10 billion.
One of the officials said the package represented a “one time shot” — unless Congress passes the supplemental spending bill, which includes roughly $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, or more cost savings are found. It is expected to include anti-aircraft missiles, artillery rounds and armor systems, the official said.
The aid announcement comes as Polish leaders are in Washington to press the U.S. to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. Polish President Andrzej Duda met Tuesday with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate and was to meet with President Joe Biden later in the day.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to bring the $95 billion package, which includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to the floor. Seeking to put pressure on the Republican speaker, House Democrats have launched a long-shot effort to force a vote through a discharge petition. The seldom-successful procedure would require support from a majority of lawmakers, or 218 members, to move the aid package to a vote.
Ukraine’s situation has become more dire, with units on the front line rationing munitions as they face a vastly better supplied Russian force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly implored Congress for help, but House Republican leadership has not been willing to bring the Ukraine aid to the floor for a vote, saying any aid must first address border security needs.
Pentagon officials said Monday during budget briefing talks they were counting on the supplemental to cover the $10 billion replenishment hole.
“If we don’t get the $10 billion we would have to find other means,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said. “Right now we’re very much focused on the need for that supplemental.”
This is the second time in less than nine months that the Pentagon has “found” money to use for additional weapons shipments to Ukraine. Last June, defense officials said they had overestimated the value of the weapons the U.S. had sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years.
At the time, Pentagon officials said a review found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. The discovery resulted in a surplus that the department used for presidential drawdown packages until the end of December.
The United States has committed more than $44.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including more than $44.2 billion since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
The Pentagon is $10 billion overdrawn in the replenishment account in part due to inflationary pressures, and in part because the new systems the Pentagon is seeking to replace the old systems with cost more, such as the upcoming Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, which the Army is buying to replace the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS.
The vast majority of those munitions have come from Army stockpiles due to the nature of the conventional land war in Ukraine.
The months without further shipments of U.S. support have hurt operations, and Ukrainian troops withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiivka last month, where outnumbered defenders had withheld a Russian assault for four months.
CIA Director William Burns told Congress that entire Ukrainian units have told him in recent days of being down to their last few dozen artillery shells and other ammunition. Burns called the retreat from Avdiivka a failure of ammunition resupply, not a failure of Ukrainian will.
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