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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced an additional $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, expanding the scope of the systems provided ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine.
The latest package, which brings the total military aid tally since Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5 billion, includes artillery systems, artillery rounds, armored personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defense vessels, Biden said in a statement after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Biden said he had also approved the transfer of additional helicopters, saying equipment provided to Ukraine "has been critical" as it confronts the invasion.
"We cannot rest now. As I assured President Zelenskyy, the American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom," Biden said.
The new security assistance package, according to the Defense Department, includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been earmarked for Afghanistan before the U.S.-backed government collapsed and 18 155mm howitzers, along with counter-artillery radars and 200 armored personnel carriers.
This was the first time howitzers have been provided to Ukraine by the United States.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said some of the systems, like the howitzers and radars, will require additional training for Ukrainian forces.
"We're aware of the clock and we know time is not our friend," Kirby said when asked about the speed of the deliveries.
The new aid — first reported by Reuters on Tuesday — will be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.
John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major and expert on urban warfare at the Madison Policy Forum think tank, said he was excited to see that the United States was sending artillery and artillery rounds.
"You need these bigger, more powerful weapons ... to match what Russia is bringing to try to take eastern Ukraine," Spencer told Reuters.
As news of the latest security assistance came out, executives from the top U.S. weapons makers met with Pentagon officials to discuss the industrial challenges in the event of a protracted Ukraine conflict.
These included executives from BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Huntington Ingalls Industries, L3Harris Technologies, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman.
Zelenskyy has been pleading with U.S. and European leaders to provide heavier arms and equipment as his country faces an invasion that has killed thousands and displaced millions.
Russia has been unable to achieve most of its military goals in the seven-week-long invasion as Ukrainians have put up a fiercer-than-expected resistance.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" to destroy Ukraine's military capabilities and capture what it views as dangerous nationalists, but Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
In Ukraine on Wednesday, Russia said it had taken control of the port in Mariupol and that more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in the southeastern Ukrainian city, which has been surrounded and bombarded by Russian troops for weeks.
Contributing: Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Temis Tormo
