The Trump administration is resuming arms sales to Ukraine. But the amounts are still meager
1 May 14:21
The Donald Trump administration has taken a small step toward resuming military aid to Ukraine. According to diplomatic sources, the US government has notified Congress that it has authorized the commercial sale of defense equipment to Kyiv worth more than $50 million. This was reported by KyivPost, "Komersant Ukrainian".
Although this is a meager amount in terms of defense, this decision is very important. After all, more than three months have passed since Trump returned to power, and all this time, American aid to Ukraine has been in question. Recently, the White House suspended all military supplies to Ukraine, emphasizing the priority of diplomatic means of resolving the conflict over continued military support.
At the same time, the U.S. Congress has allocated more than a billion dollars to Ukraine in the latest aid package specifically for the purchase of weapons through direct commercial sales. The previous Biden team allowed these funds to be used to supply critical weapons, including powerful machine guns.
According to Colby Badhwar, an analyst at the Accurate Research Group, the peculiarity of such sales is that they are not publicly announced, unlike interstate military contracts. The main news is that, despite pessimistic forecasts, Trump has not completely cut off military support for Ukraine.
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Notification of this sale was sent to Congress under the Arms Export Control Act. The authorization covers not only physical equipment but also technical documentation and related services.
Between 2015 and 2023, the United States transferred more than $1.6 billion worth of military equipment to Ukraine through such commercial agreements without much publicity.
The decision also coincided with Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent announcement that Ukraine intends to purchase $30-50 billion worth of air defense systems and other weapons from the United States as part of future security arrangements.
Dr. Michael Cecir of the RAND Research Center believes that continued U.S. military assistance will strengthen the U.S. position in the negotiations. In his opinion, in order to achieve the long-term ceasefire in Ukraine desired by Trump, Washington needs leverage over both Kyiv and Moscow.
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This news coincided with the announcement of the signing of a subsoil agreement between Ukraine and the United States, as well as Trump’s shift to tougher rhetoric toward Putin and Russia.
