On Monday, the United States announced its intention to provide Ukraine with fresh security aid worth USD 200 million. This assistance encompasses air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and extra mine-clearing equipment, as stated by the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, TVP World reports.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters last Monday that they would begin to dole out USD 6.2 billion of funds discovered after a Pentagon accounting error that overvalued billions of dollars of Ukraine aid.
In May, the Pentagon announced it had mistakenly assigned a higher-than-warranted value to the U.S. weaponry shipped to Kyiv when staff used “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” to tabulate the billions' worth of ammunition, missiles, and other equipment sent to Ukraine.
Ukraine needs weaponry that can be shipped from U.S. stocks in a matter of days or weeks so it can continue to repel Russia’s invasion. The accounting error works to Kyiv’s benefit because more equipment can be sent.
Making use of these discovered funds is significant because they represent the last of the previously congressionally authorized USD 25.5 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) the administration can utilize to ship weapons from U.S. stocks in the event of an emergency, the U.S. officials said.
Washington is currently working on a supplemental budget request to continue aiding Kyiv, the U.S. officials said.
Monday's announcement of $200 million would be the first tranche of a USD 6.2 billion windfall of previously authorized PDA, the officials said.
