The Pentagon signaled on Tuesday that the Biden Administration was on the cusp of a major new arms distribution to Ukraine as the President flounders domestically.
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder spoke to reporters on July 2 on topics including an upcoming $2.3 billion security assistance package for Ukraine that "will be a combination of Presidential drawdown authority and Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding."
The announcement had been previewed in a meeting the same morning between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov at the Pentagon.
"This package under presidential drawdown authority will provide more air defense interceptors, anti-tank weapons, and other critical munitions from U.S. inventories," said Austin. "It will also enable the United States to procure more Patriot and NASAMS air defense interceptors, which will be provided on an accelerated timeline by the re-sequencing of deliveries for some foreign military sales."
According to a May 10 fact sheet released by the Pentagon, the U.S. has committed more than $51.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration including "more than" 400,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 3 million artillery shells, 99,000 assorted anti-tank missiles and rockets, 270 howitzers, 31 Abrams tanks, and 2,100 armored vehicles.
This came the same day as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spent nearly every moment of a brutal hour-long daily press briefing defending Biden's performance in last week's Presidential debate, fending off questions from all comers about Mr. Biden's acuity and health.
Meanwhile, Biden continued to play the hits for his progressive base. For example, at a campaign reception in New York over the weekend he paused to call for a move to "come back and ban assault weapons" and implement universal background checks, slammed the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling on Monday-- despite the fact he was Vice President while the Obama administration argued before a federal court that it should have unchecked authority to kill American citizens-- then spent Tuesday delivering prepared remarks on climate change.
Banner image: Screenshot via White House YouTube account.
