Raining Taxpayer Money: Ukraine Gets $1BN More In Arms, Plus $4.5BN For "Budget Needs"
In what's looking to be endless weapons transfers to Ukraine, the US Defense Department on Monday unveiled yet another $1 billion in additional security assistance to the Ukrainian military.
Acting Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale in a press briefing described it as "the single largest package using the president's drawdown authority, including munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles..."
That's right, it just won't end...
"The package adds to about $8.8 billion in aid the United States has given Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24," Reuters reports. "It includes munitions for HIMARS, NASAMS surface-to-air missile system ammunition and as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports."
For those trying to tally the math of where this puts all defense monies committed to Ukraine thus far, the DoD statement includes the following:
In total, the United States has now committed approximately $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $11.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
The DoD announcement emphasizes the weapons and munitions package includes "the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country." However, the last two months have witnessed consistently bad news for Ukraine coming out of Donbas, where Russian forces have of late made most gains.
How it started: "Tax the Rich"
— Stalingrad & Poorski (@Stalingrad_Poor) August 8, 2022
How it's going: Another billion dollars to Ukraine, and now 87,000 new IRS agents to go after the middle class and the poors
The official DoD website lists the latest arms in this new package as follows:
- Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
- 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition;
- 20 120mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition;
- Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
- 1,000 Javelin and hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems;
- 50 armored medical treatment vehicles;
- Claymore anti-personnel munitions;
- C-4 explosives, demolition munitions, and demolition equipment;
- Medical supplies, to include first aid kits, bandages, monitors, and other equipment.
Meanwhile, following a rare CBS News expose which estimated that only some 30% of US-supplied weapons are actually making it to their intended recipients in the Ukrainian army, concerns have grown not only over potential black market activities centered on US weaponry, but also the country's well documented recent history of corruption...
I guess I never knew walking around money for corrupt oligarchs who are busy filling their suitcases with cash before they leave the country forever was a "budget need." Learn something new every day. https://t.co/fUWgUmgypF
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 8, 2022
The US television channel CBS posted on Twitter and later deleted it that only 30% of US weapons supplied to Ukraine reach the frontline.#Ukraine #USA #Russia #Russia #Ukraine #NATO pic.twitter.com/BDRPxCGsRN
— خالد اسكيف (@khalediskef) August 8, 2022
This as a fresh $4.5 billion in US taxpayer money is additionally being sent for vague sounding "budget needs," per a Monday announcement from the US Agency for International Development.
"The funding, coordinated with the U.S. Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to the Ukraine government in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion disbursement in August, USAID, the Agency for International Development, said," Reuters reports. "It follows previous transfers of $1.7 billion in July and $1.3 billion in June, USAID said."
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