INTERNATIONAL:American weapons are pouring into Ukraine.

 

President Joe Biden requested that Congress send $33 billion of emergency aid to the country at war with Russia, and the US House increased the pot to $40 billion, with about 60 percent going toward security assistance in some form or another. A bipartisan majority in the Senate is expected to approve it this week. It’s an unprecedented ramp-up that builds on the rapid transfer of billions’ worth of weapons already sent.

As Russia’s brutal invasion enters its third month, it’s clear why the US, a close partner of Ukraine and ally of 29 other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, has made support for the country a national security priority. But it’s worth stepping back to consider the sheer scale of the military aid headed to Ukraine, what it means for the country’s future, and whether those weapons will end up where they’re supposed to.

An apples-to-apples comparison of US security assistance to Ukraine versus to other countries is not so simple, because the aid comes from so many different funds and because security assistance comes in many forms. (This isn’t unique to Ukraine; tracking the various streams of security assistance the US sends around the globe is complicated enough that think tanks have whole programs devoted to it.)

The most conservative analysis of US security assistance directly for Ukraine, allocated since Russia’s February 24 invasion, will come to about $9.8 billion once Congress passes the new appropriation.

That includes the $6 billion for a new fund called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative in the forthcoming bill, according to a fact sheet published by the House Appropriations Committee. That will go toward weapons, the salaries of military officials, and other forms of intelligence, logistics, and training support. It’s in addition to the $3.8 billion worth of weapons from the US’s own stockpiles that the Biden administration has dispatched since February.

“You know they’re ramping it up when they create a whole separate budget category for it,” says Lauren Woods, who closely tracks arms budgets as director of the Center for International Policy’s security assistance monitor. “This is a really enormous request, and I’m really not sure most Americans get how big this is.”

Compare Ukraine’s $9.8 billion to the $4 billion the US gave last year to Afghanistan before the US withdrew troops, or the roughly $3 billion or more the US has given Israel each year for four decades.

The US has sent everything from Javelin anti-tank missiles to Switchblade drones, artillery and body armor, and increasingly some high-tech equipment like laser-guided rocket systems, surveillance radar, and Mi-17 helicopters, as detailed in a recent list circulated by the Department of Defense. And it’s having a real effect on the battlefield, as Russia’s scaled-down offensive in the east sputters

That tranche for Ukraine is only part of the picture.

The number could be even bigger, as there’s $4 billion of foreign military financing (US taxpayer dollars to underwrite other countries’ purchase of US weapons) allocated to Ukraine and NATO allies in the congressional appropriation.

Then there’s the $8.7 billion of funds in the congressional package to replenish US stockpiles of weapons, probably backfilling much of what has been sent to Ukraine since the Russian invasion was launched in February, especially missiles. The Biden administration sent those under what’s called the drawdown authority, so that emergency weapons could reach the country as quickly as possible.

Experts say they have never seen those stockpiles retrieved from at this volume. There’s also $3.9 billion for European partners supporting the mission (including hardship pay for troops), $600 million for the US to increase its weapons production, and $500 million for the Pentagon to buy more munitions, which all together comes to about $24 billion, a staggering number according to each of the experts I interviewed.

The US is far and away the world’s largest arms seller and provider of military assistance. It’s a central part of American foreign policy, so this method of support is, in one sense, unsurprising. But still, taken all together, the aid to Ukraine is gigantic compared to what the US sends abroad in a given year. Typically, according to the Security Assistance Monitor, US military aid globally hovered around $20 billion in most years since 2013, with 2007 reaching a high of $30.6 billion.

In short, it’s a massive investment in Ukrainian and European security. If the war in Ukraine drags on for years, this level of funding will arguably not be sustainable. Already it’s shaping Ukraine’s pushback to Russia’s invasion, but it may also catalyze other long-term effects.

Story By :VOX.