WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday that the US is sending Ukraine its largest aid package to date – worth $6 billion – that will include munitions for Patriot missile defense systems that Kyiv has said could change the course of the war, but not the systems themselves.
The massive package comes just two days after a separate $1 billion tranche for Ukraine was announced upon President Biden signing a $95 billion foreign aid supplemental funding bill into law.
“The announcements this week underscore America’s enduring commitment to Ukraine’s defense,” Austin said after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, held virtually from the Pentagon.
The latest package will include “critical interceptors for Ukraine’s Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, more counter-drone systems and support equipment, significant amounts of artillery ammunition and air to ground munitions and maintenance and sustainment support,” the secretary said.
Notably missing are the Patriots themselves, which Ukrainian troops say are essential to any counter-offensive to regain territory taken by the Kremlin.
During the meeting of 50 nations that support Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for the package, and pressed all member nations to consider sending Patriot batteries – which defense experts consider to be the most powerful air-defense systems in existence.
Austin confirmed that the group “pushed especially hard today to rush in more air-defense systems, and interceptors,” despite the exclusion of the Patriots.
Still, the additional munitions for the systems will boost Kyiv’s ability to defend against Russia’s regular rocket barrages that target Ukraine’s major cities.
Zelensky has said just seven more Patriots would effectively defend his country’s airspace, though more would be welcome.
“We are telling this directly – to defend, we need seven more ‘Patriots’ or similar air defense systems, and it’s a minimum number,” Zelensky told NATO members last week. “They can save many lives and really change the situation.”
“I think going forward, we’ll be able to hopefully work with a number of countries to to put together additional Patriot capability,” Austin said Friday.
While some projectiles – particularly Iranian-made Shahed drones – sometimes slip through, Patriot and other advanced air-defense systems are credited with allowing everyday Ukrainians to remain in their country rather than flee and preventing Russians from taking out important government buildings in Kyiv.
They are also particularly important on the frontlines, where Kyiv’s forces cannot advance without air cover. The lack of such protection contributed to the fall of the eastern city of Avdiivka to Russian troops early this year.
“Air defense has two tasks: first is protection of critical objects in the country, and the second is providing cover for troops advancing on the enemy,” a Ukrainian Patriot battery commander told The Post on the battlefield last month. “It is important both around the cities and important government objects, and of course, at the frontlines.”
The US sent one Patriot battery to Ukraine in a previous package, but rank-and-file troops agreed with their president that more are needed to protect civilians and warfighters alike.
“We have a critically limited quantity and we cannot use it at the same time inside the country and on the frontline,” a Ukrainian Patriot operator told The Post on the frontlines on March 6. “We need to have [a] few around the biggest towns and about five on the frontlines.”
“When we have a system which controls the air space for hundreds of kilometers,” another Ukrainian soldier said at the time, “no one will fly there.”
The troops spoke to The Post anonymously due to the critical nature of their jobs and the threat of retaliation if captured by Russian forces.
It will still be months before Ukraine receives equipment from the latest package, which will be sent through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative that provides funds to order new weapons systems not already in stock.
Weapons from the $1 billion package announced Wednesday are expected to be delivered to Ukraine as soon as Monday, as those items will be sent from the Pentagon’s stockpile.
The latest package represents the 57th tranche of military equipment the Pentagon has sent Ukraine since the fall of 2021, when Russian President Vladimir Putin began preparing for his invasion launched on Feb. 24, 2022.
