Biden preparing to send fresh shipment of ammo, missiles to Ukraine

STOCKHOLM — The Biden administration plans to send $325 million in additional military aid for Ukraine, as defense leaders from dozens of nations prepare to meet in Germany at the end of this week to figure out the next steps in helping Kyiv.

The package is primarily focused on boosting Ukraine’s inventories of munitions and anti-armor capabilities, two of its most urgent battlefield needs, as Kyiv stockpiles weapons in preparation for a widely anticipated spring offensive, according to a Defense Department official, who was granted anonymity to discuss details ahead of the announcement.

The news comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin travels to Sweden, making him the first U.S. defense secretary in more than 20 years to visit the country. From there he will travel to Germany for a regular meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, where he and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley will host their counterparts around the world to discuss what the West can donate to Kyiv.

Two Patriot missile defense systems, one from the U.S. and one as part of a combined effort from Germany and the Netherlands, arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday, after a group of Ukrainian air defenders completed training to use the weapons.

Austin is in Europe as questions continue to swirl over the leak of classified documents online, many of which were based on slides developed by the Joint Staff to brief senior Pentagon leaders on the situation in Ukraine. Some of those documents reflected U.S. concerns about the state of Kyiv’s inventories ahead of the spring fighting, including a detailed accounting of Ukraine’s dwindling supply of munitions and air defense missiles. Other intelligence documents reportedly included pessimistic U.S. assessments over Ukraine’s ability to win the war this year.

But a second Defense Department official said the Pentagon would not allow “any kind of spinning of negative information” to undermine its continued support for Ukraine and cooperation with other Western countries.

“Well, [Ukraine] could run out of artillery ammunition — if we didn't do anything,” the official said. “But we are absolutely going to provide them with the ammunition, the artillery, the spare parts, the maintenance, the sustainment, the platforms that they need.”

The package includes additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems; 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds; tube-launched, optically-tracked wire-guided missiles for the U.S.-provided Bradley armored fighting vehicles; AT-4 anti-armor weapon systems; anti-tank mines; demolition munitions for obstacle clearing; over 9 million rounds of small arms ammunition; four logistics support vehicles; and precision aerial munitions.