As US Announces New $800M Ukraine Arms Package, Here’s The Total List Since War’s Start

In a Thursday CNN interview Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk described a stalemated battlefield situation with Russia, while also urging more Western arms to be urgently sent. “The war is in a situation where the Russians cannot move anywhere further because of the weapons the West provided us. We managed now to make them stop,” Zagorodnyuk said.

“But unfortunately at the same time we don’t have enough weapons for a proper, serious, fully-fledged counter-offensive,” he added. Yet a battlefield stalemate is where things can get dangerous fast, as is the case with the ongoing standoff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. As we detailed earlier President Putin has warned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a Friday phone call that Ukraine forces’ “systematic shelling” risks a “large-scale catastrophe” at the Zaporizhzhia plant, based on his words in the Kremlin call readout.

But the West still appears to be holding out hope that ramped up arms shipments, including increasingly heavier and longer-range weapons, can tip the scales against the superior and larger Russian forces. This is at least the logic in Washington, despite little evidence the unprecedented defense aid packages have significantly halted or dented the Russian offensive.

Politico reports Friday: “The U.S. will announce a new military aid package for Ukraine on Friday, two people familiar with the announcement told Politico, with another $800 million in weapons and ammunition.” This means the total so far in pledged defense packages (excluding other types of US aid) has just sailed north of $9 billion, according to the below figures.- READ MORE