US adds $800m in military aid to Ukraine, including drones, anti-tank weapons

Batch includes 800 Stingers, 2,000 Javelin missiles, 100 tactical drones, 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and 25,000 helmets

WASHINGTON — The US will send an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for Washington’s further help in staving off the Russian invasion in an address to a joint session of Congress.

The latest installment came days after US President Joe Biden transferred another $200 million in weapons to Kyiv. He has sent a total of $2 billion in arms since taking office.

The newest batch includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, thousands of anti-tank weapons including 2,000 of the now-famously deadly Javelins, 100 “tactical” drones, 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, and 25,000 sets of helmets and body armor.

Ukraine has already been given hundreds of Stingers, which can shoot down relatively low flying aircraft.

But Biden said that “at the request of President Zelensky, we have identified and are helping Ukraine acquire additional longer-range anti-aircraft systems.”

A US military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the weapons system under discussion was the S-300, a sophisticated missile that is of Russian design, but owned by some European NATO members and seen as easy to integrate into Ukraine’s military.

Ukrainian soldier with a Javelin ATGM and a destroyed Russian T-72B tank. https://t.co/8KwcYyicZC pic.twitter.com/luXkhUdwQf

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 16, 2022

The drones mentioned by Biden are a US weapon called Switchblade, which has the ability to loiter over a target, before plunging down like a bomb, the military source said.

On Thursday, Zelensky’s senior adviser Andriy Yermak offered his gratitude, tweeting that Biden has done more for Ukraine “than any of his predecessors.”

The announcement by Biden came after Zelensky’s Wednesday virtual address to Congress. Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation, before and after his short remarks, which the president began in Ukrainian through an interpreter, but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed.

“I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths,” he told them.

The president opened his speech by invoking painful moments in US history to reflect his country’s current struggle against Russia.

“Remember Pearl Harbor, the terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you,” he said, recalling the Japanese air raid that brought the US into World War II.

“Remember September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. Our country experienced the same every day,” he said.

After quoting Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, he said: “I have a need, the need to protect our sky. I need your decision, your help.”

“Is this too much to ask, to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine?” he asked, answering his own question. “If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative,” calling for weapons systems that would help fight Russian aircraft.

Among the weapons the Biden administration has already sent Ukraine are more than 600 Stinger missiles, 2,600 Javelin anti-armor systems, unmanned aerial system tracking radars, grenade launchers, 200 shotguns, 200 machine guns, and nearly 40 million rounds of small arms ammunition, along with helicopters, patrol boats, satellite imagery and body armor, helmets, and other tactical gear.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky virtually addresses the US Congress, on March 16, 2022, at the US Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium, in Washington, DC. (J. Scott Applewhite/Pool/AFP)

However, the US has stopped short of Zelensky’s plea for a no-fly zone to be imposed over Ukraine — a measure that analysts say could lead to a full-out war between Russia and the countries initiating such a move. The EU and NATO have also rejected Zelensky’s demand.

Congress has already approved $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and the newly announced security aid will come from that allotment, which is part of a broader bill that Biden signed into law Tuesday.

While a number of lawmakers have spoken out in favor of a no-fly zone, they currently make up a very small minority in Washington.

Biden has insisted there will be no US troops on the ground in Ukraine and has resisted Zelensky’s relentless pleas for warplanes as too risky, potentially escalating into a direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.