On May 9, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the provision of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine totaling $ 1.2 billion. Thus, the total amount of US military assistance officially allocated to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 now amounts to about $ 37 billion, and the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 has exceeded $39.8 billion.
The M901 launcher of the first battery (division) of the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system received by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Germany, April 2023 (c) Ministry of Defense of UkraineThis assistance package is fully allocated within the framework of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), that is, the military equipment provided under it will be ordered by industry, and not transferred from the presence of the US armed forces.
Due to the fact that the property and systems provided for this part of the package must be ordered by industry, then, apparently, a significant part of them will actually be delivered after a fairly long time.
At the same time, the press release on the allocation of this package continues the trend of reducing the content of the information component of the American official data on the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine, without disclosing data on either the number or type of systems supplied. According to a US Department of Defense press release, this package includes:
- additional air defense equipment and ammunition for them;
- equipment for the integration of Western air defense launchers, anti-aircraft missiles and radar stations with Ukrainian air defense systems;
- ammunition to counter unmanned aircraft systems;
- 155 mm artillery shots;
- commercial satellite survey services;
- financial means to support training, provision and maintenance.
Regarding the air defense systems planned to be delivered to Ukraine as part of this package, US Department of Defense spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said at a briefing on May 9 that the specific air defense systems mentioned in this announcement have not yet been determined, and that "this is what we will study, and again, when we will have something to announce, we will do it."
In turn, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, commenting on the new package of American military assistance in his evening television speech on May 9, said that "not everything can be talked about."
It is also worth noting that during the above-mentioned briefing on May 9, the press secretary of the US Department of Defense, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, confirmed from the US side the interception of the Russian aviation hypersonic Kinzhal missile by the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system of American production, previously announced by the Ukrainian side on the night of May 4.
