US House Passes $61 Billion Military Aid Bill for Ukraine and Increases Weapons Support – Latest Updates

After months of delay, the US House of Representatives passed a budget bill worth $61 billion (about 84 trillion won) in additional military aid to Ukraine on the 20th (local time).

The Ukrainian military is expected to be supported by missiles and artillery shells, which will help stop the Russian military advance.

The Ukraine aid budget bill passed by the US House of Representatives will be approved by the Senate as soon as possible and will become a bill once President Joe Biden signs it.

The budget includes at least $8 billion (about 11 trillion won) to resupply Ukraine with missiles and weapons.

Ukraine said it needed the money “not yesterday or tomorrow, but now,” and said it could be defeated without additional aid from the United States.

According to the Kiel Institute for World Economic Research in Germany, the military aid given by the United States to Ukraine amounted to $45.6 billion (about KRW 62.8 trillion) from February 2022, when the war first started, to January -year.

It was followed by Germany with $19.1 billion (about 26.3 trillion won), the United Kingdom with $9.8 billion (about 13.5 trillion won), Denmark with $9.1 billion (about 12.5 trillion won), and the European Union ( EU) with $6.1 billion. (about 8.4 trillion won) was given.

The Biden administration warned that the Ukrainian forces are suffering from a shortage of weapons and that morale is declining.

Among the weapons that are in short supply, air defense missiles are the most important.

“Ukraine needs long-range interceptor missiles to counter Russian glide bombs,” said Dr. Marina Miron of King’s College London, UK. “Russia is hitting the opponent’s defensive positions and civilian targets with glide bombs,” he said.

At the same time, the British think tank ‘Royal Joint Military Institute (RUSI)’ limits the number of artillery shells that the Ukrainian army can fire per day to 2,000.

In contrast, the Russian military is said to fire up to 10,000 artillery shells per day. The Russian military is said to receive nearly 3 million shells a year from domestic and North Korean factories.

Ukraine has ceded 583 square kilometers of territory to Russia on the eastern front since last October, and the main reason is believed to be a shortage of artillery shells. Ukraine’s explanation is that the lack of air defense capabilities and the lack of artillery shells are the main reasons for giving up the Audiuka in February this year.

At the same time, the EU promised to deliver 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by early March this year, but they did not keep the promise.

However, last month, the Czech Republic reached an agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to buy 800,000 units of 155mm and 122mm ammunition from countries outside the EU and supply them to Ukraine.

Justin Crump, an analyst at the British strategic consulting firm Civilline, predicted that once the United States starts supplying weapons again, Ukraine will finally be able to use its artillery shells in the -currently cheaper to use.

“Until now, we have refrained from using artillery shells because we did not know when they would be provided again,” he said.

After the Russian attack in February 2022, the West has been providing defensive weapons that the Ukrainian military can use against Russian military vehicles.

First, the United States and Great Britain provided thousands of ‘Javelin’ and ‘NALW’ anti-tank missiles, which played an important role in blocking the Russian advance.

While Russia has a stronger air force than Ukraine, Western countries have provided several air defense systems to counter attacks targeting Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

These include the British ‘Starstreak’ man-portable anti-aircraft missile and the US ‘Patriot Missile System’ surface-to-air missile.

Patriot is a weapon with high operating costs, with one missile costing about $3 million (about 4.1 billion won).

The United States and Norway supported ‘Nasams (National High Surface to Air Missile System)’ for air defence, and Germany supported the ‘Iris-T’ air-to-air missile.

Since Russia withdrew from the capital Kiev, the war in Ukraine has been focused mainly on the eastern front. Both Russia and Ukraine are pouring in a lot of artillery shells and missiles.

Australia, Canada, and the United States provided the M777 howitzer and ammunition to Ukraine.

The United States and the United Kingdom also supported long-range missile systems such as the ‘HIMARS multi rocket launcher’ and the ‘M270 multi rocket launch system’.

In addition, Ukraine received long-range missiles such as ‘Scalp’ from France, ‘Storm Shadow’ from the UK, and ‘ATACMS’ from the United States.

Meanwhile, the United States says the cluster bombs it delivered to Ukraine helped drive Russian troops out of their defensive positions.

Cluster bombs are weapons where many shells are scattered inside a shell, and their use is banned in more than 100 countries because they can cause civilian damage.

Early last year, Western countries agreed to provide tank support to Ukraine. This is because it was hoped that Ukraine would be able to advance through Russian defenses.

Britain provided ‘Challenger 2’.

The United States provided 31 ‘M1 Abrams’ tanks, and European countries provided several German-made ‘Leopard 2’ tanks.

The American made tank ‘M1 Abrams’ is considered one of the most advanced tanks.

However, despite this tank support, Ukraine was unable to make significant progress in the counter-attack.

Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) have not only been used to monitor, target, and launch missiles during this war, but they are also widely used as so-called weapons. ‘kamikaze style’.

At the beginning of the war, Turkiye supported the drone ‘Bayraktar TB2’, which can also launch missiles, the United States supported the kamikaze drone ‘Switchblade’, and other countries supported commercial surveillance drones such as the ‘DJI Mavic 3’ made in China. ‘. I applied.

In February, the British government announced plans to join a coalition of countries to provide thousands of ‘first-person view’ drones for surveillance and targeting.

While Russia’s air power is superior, Ukraine still wants fighter jet support from the United States.

Then, last May, President Biden announced that he would allow other countries to support Ukraine for the US-made F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet.

Accordingly, Ukrainian pilots are learning how to fly the F-16 in 11 Western countries, and Denmark and the Netherlands plan to provide F-16s for free.