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US officials said on Friday they will send additional sophisticated artillery systems and ammunition to Ukraine, again bolstering the country’s forces as they carry out a coordinated campaign of strikes against Russian military targets.
The latest $270 million package includes four M142 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, bringing the total number the U.S. has provided to Kyiv to 16, House spokesman John Kirby said White. The package also includes 36,000 rounds of shell ammunition and funding for up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, unmanned aircraft that can be used to directly target opposing forces or to conduct reconnaissance for artillery strikes.
“This is an ongoing process,” Kirby said of the arms supply to Ukraine. “It’s almost real-time as we continue to follow events on the battlefield and talk to the Ukrainians about what they need.”
Ukraine’s strike campaign has put new strains on Russia’s military, which has already suffered at least 15,000 casualties since it invaded Ukraine in February and is suffering hundreds more killed and wounded every day, according to Western estimates. Those combat losses include thousands of lieutenants and captains, hundreds of colonels and “many” generals, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
Ukraine has already hit more than 100 “high-value” Russian military targets, including command posts, ammunition depots, air defense sites, radar and communications nodes and long-range artillery positions, the official said of US Defense. As Russia continues to fire thousands of artillery rounds a day, the official said, Moscow “can’t keep it up forever” and has now committed 85 percent of its military to the war in Ukraine.
“They’ve spent a lot of smarter munitions,” the senior defense official said, referring to the precision-guided weapons. “His abilities are getting dumber and dumber.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine is still adding precision weapons to its own cache, relying heavily on HIMARS, which can launch rockets from the back of a truck and then move quickly. The senior US defense official said that as of Thursday, Russia had not destroyed a single Ukrainian-supplied HIMARS, although they are likely to “get lucky” and do so at some point.
Counting the package approved Friday, the United States has reserved 16 HIMARS for Ukraine, while Germany and Britain have each provided a handful of similar weapons. Ukrainian officials have asked for dozens more to help them launch a counteroffensive against Russia.
Kirby declined to say the maximum number of HIMARS the United States can provide to Ukraine.
“As you’ve heard me say many, many times, we’re in constant dialogue with the Ukrainians, almost every day at different levels of the chain of command, talking about their capability needs so that we can be as responsive as possible,” he he said.
Since Russia invaded, the United States has provided Ukraine with more than $8.2 billion in weapons. The Allies have provided additional weapons.
Karen DeYoung in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.