White House announces 270-mln-USD security assistance to Ukraine

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced Friday that the United States will provide Ukraine with an additional package of security assistance worth 270 million U.S. dollars.

According to a factsheet issued by the Department of Defense, the new round of aid includes four "High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems" (HIMARS) and additional ammunition for the HIMARS, four command post vehicles, 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition, 3,000 anti-armor weapons as well as up to 580 "Phoenix Ghost" tactical unmanned aerial systems.

Part of the package, totaling 175 million dollars, will be approved directly by President Joe Biden under the presidential drawdown authority (PDA), the Pentagon said, with the remaining 95 million dollars coming from the Department of Defense-led Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.

While weapons approved by the PDA are drawn directly from existing Pentagon stocks, the USAI is an authority under which the U.S. government procures weapons from the industry via contracts.

The newly announced package brings total U.S. commitment of security assistance for Ukraine to approximately 8.2 billion dollars since the start of the Biden administration, according to the factsheet.