Joe Biden approves $500M Ukraine military aid package for counteroffensive campaign

WASHINGTON — The US will send another $500 million in military aid to Ukraine as Kyiv works to reclaim Russian-occupied territory in its ongoing counteroffensive, the White House announced Tuesday.

The aid will include the usual artillery, missiles and ammunition — as well as 30 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 25 Stryker armored personnel carriers, and mine-clearing equipment as Ukrainian forces work to free Moscow-held terrain in the east and southeast of the country.

“[The aid] includes key capabilities to support Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations … as well as additional armored vehicles, anti-armor systems, critical munitions, and other equipment to help Ukraine push back on Russia’s war of aggression,” the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

The package, the 41st to come from the Pentagon’s weapons stockpiles since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022, will also include Stinger, AT-4, and Javelin anti-aircraft systems; anti-armor rockets; HARM and TOW missiles; small arms and more than 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said some of the items, such as Patriot air-defense system munitions, will “help Ukraine protect its people from rocket attacks and provide Ukraine with additional anti-armor systems and ammunition for the HIMARS rocket systems that Ukraine is using so effectively on the battlefield.”

“We continue to support Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

The latest package comes at a uniquely advantageous time for Kyiv.

After launching its long-anticipated counteroffensive this month, Ukraine caught an additional break after a weekend insurrection by Wagner Group mercenaries tanked Russian troop morale and sent the Kremlin into a flurry of panic.

Everything to know about the Wagner Group’s attack on Russia

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary fighting force will not face charges and will instead be exiled despite leading an armed insurrection against Moscow on Saturday, the Kremlin said.

Prigozhin, owner and founder of the mercenary organization, called for an armed rebellion and threatened to rush Moscow in order to oust the official whom he accused of ordering the bombing of his war camps in Ukraine.

However, Prigozhin eventually agreed to halt the Wagner Group’s advance on Moscow just 120 miles from the capital after a day-long negotiation the mercenary leader had with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was given permission to broker a deal with Progozhin by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s presidential plane left Moscow early Saturday, sparking rumors that he had fled the Russian capital as the Wagner Group’s forces advanced on the city.

The president’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St. Petersburg area — but then disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, the BBC reported, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.

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Ukrainian forces on Monday liberated the southeastern village of Rivnopil from Russia’s grasp, according to Kyiv’s Ministry of Defense.

Rivinopil is near the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Moscow has claimed it has annexed and where Ukraine is focusing its counteroffensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the June 24 insurrection “threatened a real civil war” as the mercenary group marched toward Moscow from the south before Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin called the rebellion off just 120 miles south of the capital.

Putin also admitted that “the content of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided by the state,” after denying last year that the mercenaries were even in Ukraine, according to the state-owned TASS news site.

The authoritarian leader said Russia paid Wagner more than $1 billion for the maintenance of fighters between May 2022 and May 2023 alone.

The loss of Wagner’s leadership and fighters leaves Russia to rely solely on its own forces in Ukraine, many of whom are conscripts without extensive military experience.