On Monday, the Pentagon announced a $125 million security assistance package for Ukraine, with an extra $150 million contingent on Kyiv making progress on reforms and anti-corruption efforts.
According to Pentagon, the $125 million package for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative includes training, equipment, and advisory efforts in order to help Ukraine’s forces preserve the country’s territorial integrity, secure its borders, and improve interoperability with NATO.
Further $150 million, appropriated by Congress in fiscal 2021, is conditional on Ukraine’s progress on security reforms.
Pentagon announced that the Department supports Ukraine to continue to pass reforms that increase civilian control of the military, promote strengthened transparency and accountability in the defense industry and procurement, and improve its defense sector in other key areas in line with NATO principles and standards.
The money was meant to support Ukraine to protect itself against Russian aggression
Based on the statement, the money was meant to support Ukraine to protect itself against Russian aggression better and funded through foreign military financing with the State Depart.
Significantly, the country has been in a harmful conflict with Russia, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and cast its support behind pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukraine. In its seventh year, the conflict has killed over 14,000 people and destroyed Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
Except for the two Mark VI patrol boats, the Pentagon announced it provides radars for countering artillery, support for satellite imagery and analysis capability, and equipment to support military medical treatment and combat evacuation procedures.
Another essential thing to mention is that the December 2019 impeachment of then-President Donald Trump focused on allegations that he refused military assistance to Ukraine as part of a scheme to urge the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden. Significantly, at the time, Joe Biden, who is now president of the U.S., was challenging Donald Trump for the White House and, in November 2020, won Trump at the polls. The Senate acquitted Trump in February 2020.
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