The Biden administration will provide Ukraine with $500 million worth of firepower like Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Stryker armored personnel carriers by again reaching into its own stockpile of military equipment, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
The authorization is the Biden administration’s 41st drawdown of military equipment from Defense Department inventories earmarked for Ukraine since August 2021 as Kyiv tried to fight off a Russian invasion force. While Mr. Biden has been careful not to directly confront Russian forces, the U.S. has been by far the biggest military supplier to Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022.
“It’s meant to enable them to sustain this fight that they find themselves in,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters. “In the midst of combat, one can expect that equipment will be damaged and that equipment will be destroyed.”
In addition to the Bradleys and Strykers, the latest drawdown includes more munitions for Ukraine’s Patriot air defense system and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as demolition devices for clearing obstacles, anti-tank rockets and mine-clearing equipment.
“This security assistance package will support Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive operations with equipment directly tailored for Ukraine’s needs on the battlefield today,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday in a statement.
The Defense Department insisted Tuesday that there was no connection between the latest drawdown and Wagner Group commander Yevgeny Prigozhin’s stunning rebellion and aborted march on Moscow over the weekend. Mr. Prigozhin has fled to Belarus and the fate of his powerful mercenary force is still uncertain.
“The security situation inside Russia is an internal Russian matter,” Gen. Ryder said. “We were not involved in this [and] we won’t get involved. We’re not at war with Russia and we don’t seek conflict with Russia.”
The heated dispute between Mr. Prigozhin and top Russian military officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, so far does not seem to have changed the dynamics of the fight in Ukraine, where dug-in Russian forces are trying to hold off a renewed Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east, officials said.
“There’s no indication they are willing to give up that fight and move back to Russia,” Gen. Ryder said.
