Western armaments for Ukraine

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 12 Jul 2022 by Alex Teddy

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NATO and EU countries have been supplying Ukraine since 2014. However, until 2022 this is mostly non-lethal aid. Ukrainian military officers have been trained in the US since the 1990s. The US sold Ukraine Javelin anti-tank weapons from 2018. Ukraine started to buy TB2 drones from Turkey in 2019.  Since the invasion in 2022 NATO and the EU have massively expanded lethal aid to Ukraine. Germany started to furnish Ukraine with weapons, which it had not done before.  On February 26 the US announced a new military aid package and the EU followed suit. NATO and the EU have provided about 60,000 anti tank weapons to Ukraine in 2022. The EU never provided military aid as the EU before. It used to be member states that provided it rather than the EU itself. The EU is furnishing arms through the European Peace Facility on the grounds that it was saving Ukrainian civilians.  Ukraine has received at least 25,000 anti air weapons systems. In April 2022 the US held a meeting at Ramstein, Germany with 40 allies to discuss military aid to Ukraine. The US has provided over USD 21 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2022 alone. There is at least USD 14 billion in humanitarian aid as well. France has provided 18 CAESAR self-propelled howitzers. NATO countries have provided Ukraine with 12 HIMARS. There are around 500 HIMARS in the world. Almost all are held by NATO countries. They are manufactured by Lockheed Martin. A HIMAR costs about USD 5 million and a rocket that it fires costs about USD 75,000. The US has said it will send more HIMARS. HIMARS are superb but Ukraine has far too few to make a major difference.  Ukraine says it is firing about 5,500 artillery rounds a day and using...