At the direction of lame-duck President Joe Biden, the Pentagon set a record in terms of ammo on Monday when it announced the latest security assistance package to Ukraine.

The $725 million package debuted this week is the 71st drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. Further, it pushes the running total of direct military aid to Ukraine by the Biden Administration to $61.4 billion since February 2022. 

Among the items detailed in this week's drawdown were AT-4, Javelin, and TOW anti-tank missile systems; Stinger and NASAMS anti-aircraft missiles, artillery shells, drones, landmines (which have drawn criticism), and small arms ammunition. 

A three-page fact sheet included with the Dec. 2 package tallies the total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine over the past four years at "over 500 million rounds of small arms ammunition," a figure up from 400 million noted last October, 300 million noted in June 2023, 200 million rounds in May 2023, and an original benchmark set at 104 million seen as recently as late November 2022.

The figure includes both small arms ammunition, which is classified as calibers .50 cal BMG and smaller, as well as 40mm low-velocity grenades of the sort fired by the M203 launcher and 40mm high-velocity grenades fired through the Mk 19 grenade machine gun. 

The transfer announcement comes as sources inside the Ukraine military recently told the Associated Press that upward of 100,000 troops have deserted the fight as the war approaches its third bloody year. Meanwhile, the country claims to have "eliminated" 745,000 Russian personnel. 

Banner image: Ukraine 95th Air Assault Brigade member (Photo: Ukrainian Army/X)