Biden admin announces new weapons package for Ukraine following months of warnings there was no money left

The new package includes much-needed artillery ammunition, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-armor systems and more.

In explaining how the Defense Department now has money available for Ukraine aid, a senior defense official said, “We had savings come in that will allow us to offset the cost of a new drawdown package.”

The Pentagon has had approximately $4 billion in drawdown authority left to send to Ukraine - weapons and equipment pulled directly from Defense Department stocks. But the Pentagon was reluctant to use that funding, because there was no replenishment money left to refill the US inventories.

The newfound savings - the result of “good negotiations” and “bundling funding across different things,” according to a second senior defense official - provided the Pentagon with an additional $300 million to use as replenishment funding, to backfill the aid sent to Kyiv. The second official gave one example of being able to buy 25mm ammunition at a cheaper cost than originally expected after contract negotiations with the vendor.

But the official made clear this is not a sustainable long-term solution to providing much-needed weaponry to Ukraine as Republican leaders in the House continue to refuse to bring a bill that would provide additional military aid up for a vote.

“This is a bit of an ad-hoc or one time shot,” said the first official. “We don’t know if or when future savings will come in. And we certainly can’t count on this as a way of doing business.”

“We weren’t broke at the time, but now we are.”

The last Ukraine aid package from the US was announced in late December. At the time, the Pentagon said in a letter to Congress that the Defense Department “will have exhausted the funding available to us for security assistance” after the package was announced.

Asked if this new aid package will reduce pressure on Congress to pass a supplemental bill that includes billions in aid for Ukraine, the second official said, “It shouldn’t.”

“The supplemental is absolutely vital for our readiness, as well as Ukraine winning this conflict. This doesn’t change that at all. It is a relatively small package to give Ukraine, the minimum of what it needs for a short amount of time.”

This is not the first time the Pentagon has announced additional, unexpected sources of funding for Ukraine. Last year, the Defense Department announced that it had discovered an accounting error that led to DoD overvaluing the amount of aid it was providing to Ukraine by $6.2 billion. That extra money provided a cushion to the department that allowed it to draw out military assistance to Ukraine for longer than anticipated, CNN previously reported.

Without the support and weapons supplies from the US, Ukraine has lost ground in the war with Russia, outnumber and outgunned by an adversary that has fully shifted its economy to a war-time footing. Last month, Russian forces raised their flag in Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine after a months-long assault.

As Ukraine lost ground, the Biden administration urged the House of Representatives to act on the $60 billion supplemental, which has already passed the Senate.

“We believe that the support is still there if the House is allowed to vote,” said the second defense official. But the House’s Republican leadership has refused to bring the bill for a vote, forcing the Pentagon to think differently about how to send aid to Ukraine.

“You’ve got to take a different risk calculus about going any further if it’s no longer assured that you’re going to get help,” the official said.

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