US to send additional $1 billion in aid to Ukraine

The United States will send more munitions to Ukraine, including rockets for HIMARS launchers which have been credited with destroying Russian command posts and munitions depots , the Pentagon announced on Monday.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The new shipment of weapons and supplies worth up to $1 billion will come from the Pentagon's own stockpiles and will be the The 18th such military assistance program since August 2021, Colin Kahl, the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy, told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Most of the ammunition, including 75,000 rounds for 155 millimeter howitzers and additional air defense missiles, resupply weapons that have already been shipped to Kyiv.

A weapon that is not known to have been sent before is the 120 mill mortar meters. The weapons will come with 20,000 rounds and will be included in this new series of shipments. Mortars of this size are infantry weapons that can typically fire a projectile containing about seven pounds of high explosive over a range of about four and a half miles.

M. Kahl declined to say exactly how many guided rockets the United States has sent for use with HIMARS launchers so far, beyond saying the total was "several hundred". Noting that the latest arms shipment from the United States included a "huge number" of these rockets, Kahl said they had a significant impact on Ukraine's ability to fight Russian troops. /p>

"They were very good at hitting things the Ukrainians had previously struggled to hit reliably," Kahl said, adding that the HIMARS "have made it more difficult for the Russians to move forces around the battlefield."

"They had to keep some aspects of HIMARS away," he said. “It slowed them down. This made it harder for them to resupply their forces. "essentially stabilized" and the focus of fighting with Russian forces had shifted south, where Ukrainian troops were exerting increasing pressure on Russian positions.

Qualifier the most intense conventional conflict in Europe since World War II, Kahl said Russian troop losses since the February 24 invasion have been significant, with potentially as many as 70,000 or 80,000 killed or wounded in less than six months.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"That number might be a little lower or a little higher, but I think it's a little in the ballpark , which is quite remarkable considering that the Russians failed to achieve any of Vladimir Putin's goals at the start of the war,” Kahl said.

Kahl noted that Russian forces most likely lost between 3,000 and 4,000 tanks and other armored vehicles, and he attributed some s of these losses to the Javelin anti-tank guided missiles that the United States supplied to Ukrainian troops. An additional 1,000 Javelins and hundreds of AT-4 anti-tank rockets will go to Kyiv under the new aid package.

The new shipments will bring the full amount of l U.S. military aid has sent Ukraine more than $9 billion since Russia invaded in February, Kahl said.

Separately, the United States is providing an additional $4.5 billion in funding to the Ukrainian government to help the country "maintain essential functions," according to a statement released Monday by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The money will be channeled through the World Bank in coordination with the US Treasury Department, and Ukraine will receive the funding in tranches, starting with a $3 billion disbursement this month.

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Carly Olson contributed reporting.