The billions of dollars in security aid, including weapons, that the United States has delivered to Ukraine in recent weeks have reached unprecedented speed, a Pentagon official said Wednesday. The latest $ 100 million aid package was announced on Tuesday. Its purpose is to “meet Ukraine’s urgent need for additional Javelin anti-tank systems,” the Pentagon said in a statement. This was followed by a $ 300 million aid package announced on April 1 and a $ 800 million aid package announced on March 16. In total, the United States has provided $ 1.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, and more than $ 2.4 billion since the Biden administration took office. At a news conference Wednesday, Pentagon Chief of Staff John Kirby emphasized the speed with which the aid was being delivered. Ukrainian troops load a truck with US-made Javelins anti-tank missiles at Kiev Boryspil Airport, February 11, 2022. SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images Regarding the recent aid packages, Kirby said, “from the moment the president signs them until he arrives in the area, it may be just four days, and then it does not feel like he is in a warehouse for a week or two.” In a March 31 briefing, a senior U.S. defense official, speaking anonymously to describe developments in Ukraine, said the first delivery of a $ 200 million package approved March 12 arrived six days later and that the first delivery from the $ 800 million package approved on March 16th to March 20th. “We are able to receive this material because we are so careful and so agile in how these ground missions go,” Kirby said Wednesday. “We can put it in Ukraine and often in the race within 48 hours sometimes. I mean, this is incredibly fast.” Kirby added that a $ 350 million security assistance package approved on February 26 “was completed in about three weeks.” Such deliveries “have never been made so fast in the past,” Kirby said. The April 1 package was approved as part of the Ukraine Security Initiative, through which the United States supplies goods from US companies. Other packages have been approved as direct withdrawals from US stocks. The United States has been quick to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, such as the Stinger and Javelin missiles, which US officials say are best suited to the threat posed by Ukrainian forces. The March 16 package included 800 Stingers and 2,000 Javelins, bringing the total US supply to 1,400 and 4,600 respectively. The $ 300 million package announced April 1 included machine guns and ammunition, medical supplies, secure communications systems, armored vehicles, night-vision devices, drones and anti-drone systems. A U.S. Marine launches a Switchblade unmanned aerial vehicle during an exercise at Pentleton Camp in California on September 2, 2020. U.S. Marine Corps / Cpl. Jennessa Davey Among the drones in the April 1 package were the regular Switchblade unmanned systems, a stray ammunition or “kamikaze drone”. Kirby said Wednesday that “a very small number” of Ukrainian soldiers trained in the United States since the fall have been trained with the Switchblades. “We took the opportunity, still having them in the country, to train them for a few days at Switchblade so they could return – and will return soon, back home – to train others in the Ukrainian army,” Kirby said. adding that a person could be “properly trained” in Switchblade in about two days. The switches are available in two variants, a lighter one designed to destroy infantry and artillery targets and a heavier version designed to destroy tanks and armored vehicles. Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said both variants were aimed at Ukraine, saying “they will move as fast as they can.” On Wednesday, Kirby declined to confirm that both variants were being sent, but said the United States would continue talks with the Ukrainians “and help them receive more if needed.” “We will continue to do it as much as we can, as fast as we can,” said Kirby, “and we will be as careful as we can to keep this flow going, because it is obviously in a very, very active race.”
