US announces $325 million aid package for Ukraine

The United States government on April 19 announced $325 million in new military aid for Ukraine in a package that is expected to include more artillery rounds and rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), as Ukraine continues to burn through artillery munitions at a high rate.

Defence officials who spoke to VOA ahead of the package’s release said the latest aid also includes TOW anti-tank guided missiles, anti-tank mines and AT-4 anti-armour weapons needed to push back Russian ground forces that have dug into occupied areas of Ukraine.

The new aid package marks the 36th authorized presidential drawdown of military equipment from Defense Department inventories.

The aid comes as battle lines in Ukraine have become static, exposing the larger Russian power’s weaknesses and Ukraine stubbornly defending its territory, according to a senior US official. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces said on April 18 that Russia was increasing its use of heavy artillery and airstrikes in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, even as Russia continued to sustain significant losses in the battle.

Moscow began a renewed offensive in Ukraine earlier this year that has stalled, and Kyiv is preparing for a massive counteroffensive that is expected to begin in the coming days or weeks.

“If and when Ukraine tries a spring offensive, and it's sort of petered out, then maybe you're at a point where there could be enough of a stalemate that we see somebody show interest in a cease-fire,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

US officials and analysts, including O’Hanlon, have warned the war could potentially drag into the US Republican primary season and throughout next year. But O’Hanlon said he thinks the US and Western resolve over Ukraine will remain.

“I don't see us deserting Ukraine. I think the West has made this a matter of high strategic and moral importance, and we will keep it that way,” he told VOA.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley will travel to Germany later this week for another meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which includes about 50 nations coordinating aid to help Kyiv fend off Russia’s invasion that began in February 2022. This week’s meeting at Ramstein Air Base marks one year since Austin first gathered the group.

O’Hanlon said the group has worked better than predicted in terms of maintaining supplies for Ukraine, showing Western resolve to face down Russian aggression and having “Ukraine's back even without having forces on the battlefield.”

The priorities during the meeting on April 21 are expected to be ground-based air defences, armour and artillery needs, according to a senior defence official.

“We think it will be a clear signal of not just unity — we continue to be as strong as we were a year ago — but also that that support is enduring going forward,” the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the meeting.

Even with massive help from the group, Ukrainian forces have experienced munitions and weapons shortages on the battlefield. A leaked memo from the US military shared concern that Ukraine could run out of Soviet-era air defences as soon as May, leaving Ukraine more exposed to Russian air assaults.