Fourteen facts about U.S. aid to Ukraine

Luke Coffey

Since Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time in eight years, Russian troops have ravaged Ukrainian cities, raped women, and kidnapped children. Russian missiles and Iranian drones strike Ukrainian cities daily, often hitting civilian targets. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim. For Americans who believe in respect for national borders, the supremacy of national sovereignty and the right to self-defence, supporting Ukraine is natural. Ukrainians do not ask or want American troops to help them fight Russia. All they ask for are the resources necessary to give them a fighting chance. Meanwhile, Russia is one of America’s main geopolitical adversaries. As former Secretary of State and Hudson University Distinguished Fellow Mike Pompeo said last week, a Russian victory “would be felt far beyond Ukraine’s borders, including by strengthening the alliance of Russia, China and Iran, which is aimed at weakening the United States and our allies around the world.” While Congress debates additional support for Ukraine, detractors will spread false and misleading information. It is important to understand the facts. Fact: The U.S. is not writing Ukraine “carte blanche” and most of the money allocated to help Ukraine never leaves the United States.

  • Every dollar spent to support Ukraine is authorised by Congress and used for a specific purpose. There has never been “carte blanche” on Ukraine.
  • Approximately $70 billion of aid earmarked for Ukraine will never leave the US. Instead, it supports our world-leading defence industry and creates well-paying jobs in 38 states.
  • After seeing the effectiveness of U.S. military equipment in Ukraine, European countries alone have placed $90 billion in orders for U.S. military equipment. This makes America safer and creates good-paying jobs for Americans. Fact: For a relatively modest amount of money, U.S. aid is helping Ukraine dismantle Russia’s armed forces without firing a single shot or shelling.
  • Russia is a major geopolitical adversary of the United States and a close ally of China, Iran and North Korea.
  • Estimates vary, but as many as 300,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine. The original Russian invasion force has effectively ceased to exist since February 2022.
  • Open source journalists have gathered visual evidence that Russia has lost more than 12,900 pieces of equipment in Ukraine by the time of this writing. Since this number is limited to visually confirmed losses, the actual number is likely much higher.
  • These losses include: 2,439 main battle tanks, 1,026 armoured fighting vehicles, 2,977 infantry fighting vehicles, 368 armoured personnel carriers, 914 pieces of artillery, 201 multiple rocket launchers, 93 aircraft (including three strategic bombers), 132 helicopters and probably thousands of pieces of other military equipment.
  • Ukraine has destroyed or damaged 16 ships and submarines, including the missile cruiser Moskva (formerly the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet) and the submarine Rostov-on-Don. Their destruction supports broader U.S. security objectives beyond the Black Sea. For example, Russia used both ships to support Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Fact: There has never been greater accountability for U.S. military assistance than for aid to Ukraine.
  • Shortly after the Russian invasion, the U.S. government set up the Interagency Task Force to oversee Ukraine. More than 160 officials in 20 federal oversight agencies oversee U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
  • To date, Congress has appropriated $50 million to the Inspectors General of the Department of Defence, Department of State and USAID to strengthen oversight through the working group.
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    Chapter III

    • The guided multiple launch rocket systems (GMLRS), the older AGM-88 and AGM-88E air-to-surface anti-radar missiles, and the AIM-7 and AIM-9M interceptors that the US is sending to Ukraine are either irrelevant to the Indo-Pacific fight or expiring anyway.
    • The most effective way to use these weapons is to send them to Ukraine. The 10,000 Javelins or 2,000 Stingers that the US has given to Ukraine will not be the determining factor in whether the US can deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. But they were the determining factor in allowing Ukraine to defend Kiev in the first weeks of the war.
    • America’s preferred weapons in a conflict with China would be torpedoes, AGM-158 JASSM and AGM-158C LRASM strike missiles, sea mines and Tomahawk cruise missiles. None of these were provided to Ukraine. Fact: Because of the lessons the U.S. learned from arming Ukraine, Taiwan is getting weapons earlier.
    • This is the first time the Presidential Withdrawal Authority (PDA), which has been used so effectively for Ukraine, is being used to arm Taiwan. Had the U.S. not supported Ukraine, it is unlikely that Washington would have used the PDA to arm Taiwan.
    • Congress has authorised up to $1 billion in arms transfers for Taiwan using the CCP.
    • In July 2023, the U.S. announced a $345 million military aid package to Taiwan as part of a $1 billion PDA approved by Congress.
    • Although the lethal High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is in high demand by U.S. allies and partners, Taiwan’s order for additional HIMARS will now arrive a year earlier than planned because the U.S. has reprioritised the sale. Fact: Iran and North Korea are allowing Russia to attack Ukraine. Russia supports Hamas.
    • Some of America’s main adversaries, as well as enemies of America’s closest allies and partners, have allied themselves with Russia.
    • Iran has provided Russia with more than 1,700 drones for use in Ukraine by the end of 2022. Earlier this year, Moscow and Tehran agreed to begin manufacturing some 6,000 Iranian-designed drones in Russia. Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies are using the same drones to threaten Israel and attack U.S. troops in the Middle East.
    • North Korea has reportedly supplied Russia with over a million artillery shells for use in Ukraine. There have also been reports that North Korea has provided ballistic missiles to Russia.
    • Russia regularly votes in the UN Security Council and General Assembly to defend Hamas, despite Hamas committing atrocities against Israel. In October, just weeks after the group’s terrorist attack against innocent Israeli civilians, Russia hosted a Hamas delegation in Moscow. Fact: Ukraine is not the new “perpetual war.”
    • No U.S. military personnel are fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
    • The U.S. is not a belligerent in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
    • The Ukrainians are not asking for and do not want US troops to help them fight Russia. All they are asking for are resources, which the US is more than capable of providing. Fact: The US is not engaged in an indirect war against Russia.
    • A proxy war is a war that is “waged by states acting at the instigation of or on behalf of other states.”
    • The U.S. has never incited Ukrainians to go to war. The US does not force Ukrainians to fight on their behalf. The US is simply complying with Ukrainians’ requests for weapons and assistance as they fight a war of self-defence.
    • Ukrainians are fighting a war of national survival. Russia invaded Ukraine, not the other way round. Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim.
    • If Russia stops fighting, the war will end. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine as we know it today will end. Fact: To achieve the greatest effect, the U.S. needs to provide both military and non-military assistance.