World news | The Pentagon plans to initially send $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine once bill clears the Senate and Biden

Washington, Apr 23 (AP) The Pentagon is ready to send an initial $1 billion military aid package to Ukraine, US officials said Tuesday as the Senate began debating long-awaited legislation to finance Kiev’s weapons desperately needs to slow the gains made by Russian forces in the war.

The decision comes after months of frustration as bitterly divided members of Congress deadlocked over funding, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson to put together a dramatic, bipartisan coalition to pass the bill.

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The $95 billion foreign aid package, including billions for Israel and Taiwan, passed the House of Representatives on Saturday and Senate approval was expected on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The votes are the result of weeks of high-voltage debates, including threats from Johnson’s hard-right faction to oust him as chairman. About $61 billion of the aid is intended for Ukraine.

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The package includes a range of ammunition, including air defense ammunition and large quantities of artillery shells in high demand by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons.

U.S. officials said some weapons will be delivered to the front very quickly — sometimes within days — but other items could take longer to arrive. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the initial support had not yet been publicly announced.

The US arms injection follows an announcement from Britain on Tuesday pledging another $620 million in new military supplies for Ukraine, including long-range missiles and four million rounds of ammunition.

The announcement echoes President Joe Biden’s pledge Monday in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he said the U.S. would send desperately needed air defense weapons once the Senate passes the bill. Zelensky said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Biden also assured him that a coming aid package would include long-range and artillery capabilities.

The latest wave of weapons will be delivered through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which takes systems and ammunition from existing US stockpiles and quickly sends them to the war front. Some of the ammunition is already in Europe and can therefore be moved to the Ukrainian armed forces within a few days.

Last week, a series of American leaders described how urgently Ukraine needs help. Without this, says CIA Director Bill Burns, Ukraine could lose Russia’s war by the end of this year. And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told members of the House of Representatives that battlefield conditions were changing and Russian forces were making increasing gains.

Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the situation bluntly to the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee: He said Ukraine is facing “appalling battlefield conditions.” Desperate Ukrainian troops are rationing or running out of ammunition on the front lines.

During a virtual meeting last Friday of defense ministers at the NATO-Ukraine Council, Austin underscored the need for “immediate, coordinated action” on air defense weapons for Kiev, the Pentagon said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Zelenskyy attended the meeting, along with other NATO allies.

The U.S. decision to finally send desperately needed weapons comes as Pentagon leaders prepare to meet with defense officials from Europe and around the world on Friday to discuss international aid to Ukraine.

The gathering — founded by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group — has met monthly for the past two years, but in recent sessions officials have expressed growing consternation over the U.S. standoff.

More than $20 billion in the aid bill is intended to replenish U.S. military supplies that have been depleted because they were sent to Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, the US has sent more than $44 billion in weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine. For most of that time, relief packages were routinely moved every few weeks. But toward the end of the fiscal year, on September 30, the money dried up.

And in mid-December, the Pentagon said it had run out of money and had to stop sending weapons because — without the stalled funding package in Congress — it could no longer afford to replace them.

The $1 billion package was first reported by Reuters. (AP)

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