U.S. Provided More Than $1 Billion in Security Assistance to Ukraine in Past Year
MARCH 4, 2022 | BY C. TODD LOPEZ, DOD NEWS
Contents of the most recent security assistance package approved for Ukraine — valued at $350 million dollars — is on its way now and is billed as "the largest presidential drawdown package in history," a senior defense official said during a briefing today at the Pentagon.
The official said, $240 million of that package, which includes things like anti-armor capability, has already been delivered to Ukraine to support them in their fight against an unprovoked and illegal Russian invasion.
Over the past year, the official said, as much as $1 billion in aid has been delivered to Ukraine, though not all of that may have been classified as "drawdown."
A "drawdown," according to documentation available from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, allows the president in certain circumstances — including for such things as peacekeeping operations, narcotics control, international disaster assistance, antiterrorism assistance, nonproliferation assistance, migration and refugee assistance — to withdraw existing weapons, ammunitions and material from existing U.S. military stocks and provide that to other nations.
A service member pokes his head out of the window of a vehicle.
The process of delivering this kind of aid, the official said, begins with the State Department requesting drawdown authority from the president, and also the Defense Department doing an analysis of what the Ukrainians need — in consultation with the Ukrainians — and then seeing what is actually available.
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2955960/us-provided-more-than-1-billion-in-security-assistance-to-ukraine-in-past-year/
