US to bolster Ukraine with $725 million weapons package

A Ukrainian serviceman holds a Stinger anti-aircraft missile as he attends a joint drills of armed forces, national guard and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) near the border with Belarus, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine in Rivne region, Ukraine February 11, 2023. Gleb Garanich/File Photo

The United States will send Ukraine $725 million of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, as President Joe Biden's outgoing administration seeks to bolster Kyiv in its war with Russian invaders before leaving office in January.

The assistance will include Stinger missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), drones and land mines, among other items, Blinken said in a statement.

Reuters reported last week that the Biden administration planned to provide the equipment, much of it anti-tank weapons, to ward off Russia's attacking forces.

Moscow's troops have been capturing village after village in Ukraine's east, part of a drive to seize the industrial Donbas region, while Russian airstrikes target a hobbled Ukrainian energy grid as winter sets in.

"The United States and more than 50 nations stand united to ensure Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression," Blinken's statement said.

The announcement marks a steep uptick in size from Biden's recent use of so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the U.S. to draw from current weapons stocks to help allies in an emergency.

Recent PDA announcements have typically ranged from $125 million to $250 million. Biden has an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion in PDA already authorized by Congress that he is expected to use for Ukraine before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

WAITING FOR TRUMP

Trump is widely expected to change U.S. strategy on Ukraine, after he criticized the scale of Biden's support for Kyiv and made quickly winding down the war a central campaign promise. Last week, he picked Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who presented him with a plan to end the war, to serve as special envoy for the conflict.

Kellogg's plan for ending the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory, involves freezing the battle lines at their prevailing locations and forcing both Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table, Reuters reported in June.

The tranche of weapons represents the first time in decades that the United States has exported land mines, the use of which is controversial because of the potential harm to civilians.

Although more than 160 countries have signed a treaty banning their use, Kyiv has been asking for them since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022, and Russian forces have used them on the front lines.

The land mines that would be sent to Ukraine are "non-persistent," with a power system that lasts for just a short time, leaving the devices non-lethal. This means that - unlike older landmines - they would not threaten civilians indefinitely.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Rami Ayyub; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Stephen Coates)