The funds allocated by the US Congress to help Kyiv will be enough for the supply of weapons in the current financial year. This was announced on February 28 by Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander.
“We evaluate the allocated funds [как достаточные] to provide Ukraine with the necessary weapons during the current financial year,” she said.
Meanwhile, Wallander did not rule out the possibility of the Pentagon turning to Congress for additional funds if necessary.
On February 20, US President Joe Biden, during a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv, announced a new $500 million military aid package.
According to The Hill newspaper, the total US spending on military support for Ukraine exceeded $77 billion. On February 25, the authors of the article cited statistics according to which $29.3 billion of this amount has been direct US military assistance since the start of the Russian special operation.
This included infantry weapons: more than 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, over 8,500 Javelin anti-tank systems, 2,590 TOW anti-tank missiles, more than 111 million rounds of ammunition for small arms, as well as several tens of thousands of sets of body armor and helmets, surveillance systems, night vision goggles, thermal imagers and other technology.
Against the backdrop of assistance to Kyiv from Washington, Deputy Pentagon Chief Colin Kahl said that the American military-industrial base did not meet the required level for the production of ammunition. On February 28, he called the special operation in Ukraine a kind of indicator of the existing problems of the US military-industrial complex (MIC).
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, which the Russian authorities announced on February 24, 2022 amid the aggravation of the situation in the region due to Ukrainian shelling.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
