The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a new $175 million weapons package for Ukraine as President Biden pleaded with Congress to authorize more spending on the proxy war.
“This cannot wait,” Biden said in a televised statement. “Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. Simple as that. Frankly, I think it’s stunning that we’ve gotten to this point in the first place. Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he can hope for and abandon our global leadership.”
The president claimed that if the US doesn’t support Ukraine, Russia could attack a NATO ally. “Then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today — American troops fighting Russian troops,” he said.
Later in the day, the Senate voted on a massive $111 billion bill that included Ukraine funding, but the measure failed as Republicans are looking for more concessions on border issues. “Republicans think they can get everything they want without any bipartisan compromise,” Biden said.
Earlier this week, the White House told Congress it would run out of money to fund the proxy war if Congress didn’t authorize more spending. The new $175 million weapons package used Presidential Drawdown Authority funds that became available thanks to a Pentagon “accounting error” that overvalued previous weapons shipments to Ukraine. Without the so-called error, the White House says it would not be able to arm Ukraine.
The new weapons package includes:
- AIM-9M and AIM-7 missiles for air defense
- Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
- 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
- High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs)
- Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles
- Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems
- More than 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition
- Vehicles to tow and haul equipment
- Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing
- Equipment to protect critical national infrastructure
- Spare parts, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment