On June 13, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the provision of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine totaling up to $ 325 million. 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 more than $ 40 billion, and the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 has reached $43 billion.
American M2A2 ODS-SA Bradley infantry fighting vehicles abandoned by Ukrainian troops and a German Leopard 2A6 tank after an unsuccessful offensive attempt at night and in the morning of June 8, 2023 in the Orekhovsky direction in the Zaporozhye region. In total, nine M2A2 ODS-SA Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, one Leopard 2A6 tank and one IMR-2 barrier engineering vehicle were left in this place by units of the AFU (units of the 33rd and 47th separate mechanized brigades), one Leopard 2A6 tank and one IMR-2 barrier engineering vehicle (c) frame from the video of the Ministry of Defense of Russia
The new package of military assistance to Ukraine is allocated by the orders of the US President within his administrative powers (Presidential Drawdown of Security Assistance - PDA) and is an operational allocation of property from the presence of the US Department of Defense. This is the 40th presidential package of military assistance to Ukraine under the PDA from August 2021.
As usual, since the beginning of 2023, the United States in most cases does not indicate the amount of ammunition and parts of weapons transferred to Ukraine. As part of this package, the PDA should be provided to Ukraine from the presence of the US Department of Defense:
- additional anti-aircraft guided missiles for the NASAMS anti-aircraft missile system;
- portable anti-aircraft missile systems Stinger;
- additional number of GMLRS precision guided missiles for HIMARS missile systems;
- 105-mm and 155-mm artillery shots;
- 15 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles;
- 10 Stryker armored personnel carriers;
- Javelin anti-tank missile systems;
- TOW anti-tank guided missiles;
- disposable AT4 hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers;
- more than 22 million cartridges for small arms and hand grenades;
- demolition charges for making passes;
- tactical secure radio communication equipment;
- spare parts and other field equipment.
The most interesting part of this package is the additional allocation of 15 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 10 Stryker armored personnel carriers. It is quite obvious that they are intended as compensation for the replacement of vehicles of this type lost during the offensive of the Ukrainian troops that began on June 5. Earlier, CNN reported that in the first days of the offensive, the APU lost at least 16 M2A2 ODS-SA Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, out of 109 vehicles of this type (plus four vehicles of advanced artillery observers and the advanced M7A2 Bradley Fire Support Team) transferred by the Americans (we are talking primarily about losses during the offensive in the Orekhovsky direction in the Zaporozhye region).
It is presented that the practice of promptly replenishing the losses of the Armed Forces in military equipment established by the new obviously urgent package of American military assistance to Ukraine is very unpleasant news for the Russian side. If developed, this practice can reproduce the mechanism of massive urgent American supplies of military equipment and weapons to Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, which had a significant impact on the course of hostilities.
