US announces $350 million in new military aid to Ukraine

The United States will provide Ukraine with $350 million in additional military equipment to fight off Russia’s “brutal and unprovoked assault,” says US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“This package will include further lethal defensive assistance to help Ukraine address the armored, airborne, and other threats it is now facing,” Blinken says in a statement.

Blinken says that last fall as Russia started amassing troops on the border with its pro-Western neighbor, US President Joe Biden authorized $60 million in immediate military assistance to Ukraine, then another $200 million in December as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat became more acute.

Now the US is authorizing a third package “as Ukraine fights with courage and pride against Russia’s brutal and unprovoked assault,” Blinken said.

This means total US security assistance committed to Ukraine over the past year now exceeds a billion dollars, the secretary says.

Blinken did not detail what kind of weaponry was involved.

The new assistance follows a series of US and other western sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs in an effort to punish Putin and his inner circle for the invasion of Ukraine and cripple the Russian economy.