When President Trump returned to office, he declined to announce new aid to Ukraine, and
showed outright hostility
to the country’s president in a televised appearance at the White House.
But Mr. Trump signaled a major shift this week when he announced a plan to sell weapons to NATO countries, which would then
pass them along
to Ukraine in its war against Russian forces.
After Russia launched the war in 2022, the Biden administration sent Ukraine $33.8 billion worth of weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpile, and another $33.2 billion in funds to help the country buy additional arms and hardware from the American defense industry.
But the United States began sending military support to Ukraine even before that.
What are the different types of military aid?
To get U.S. arms to Ukraine quickly, the Pentagon has taken them out of its own stockpile and
transported them
to the country’s border under a program called the presidential drawdown authority.
Congress funds that effort by giving the Pentagon money to purchase replacements.
On a slightly longer timeline, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative sends U.S. taxpayer money to Kyiv so that it can purchase goods directly from American defense firms. Those orders can take months or even years to be delivered, and are intended to offer a reliable supply of certain munitions into the future.
Mr. Trump announced a third way this week: The United States would sell arms to European nations, which would ship them to Ukraine or use them to replace weapons they send to the country from their existing stocks.
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