How much has the US contributed to the defence of Ukraine?

Biden sees support for Ukraine as bridge-builder in a divided Congress

President Joe Biden will call on Congress to unify on Tuesday as he delivers his second State of the Union speech, and his first before the House’s new Republican majority.

And one of the top reasons for that call for unity is his desire to continue providing aid to Ukraine as the country fights back a brutal invasion launched by Russia’s military last year.

Though Congress remains polarised and bitterly divided over many issues, the two parties have found reliable common ground when it comes to opposing Russia’s invasion and supporting aid packages to bolster Ukraine’s defence. That much was apparent late last year when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise holiday visit to America and spoke in person to a joint session of Congress. Voters watching Mr Biden’s address on Tuesday evening can expect Mr Biden both to call for that aid to continue as well as for lawmakers to tackle other pressing issues with that same sense of urgency and common cause.

But as Mr Biden prepares to call on lawmakers to keep up their support for Mr Zelensky’s war effort, it’s worth examining what the extent of the US aid program has been so far and what it could look like as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches.

According to the Congressional Research Service, US military and security assistance to Ukraine has totaled $29.9bn since the Russian occupation and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014. It includes efforts by three presidents, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The vast majority, roughly $27bn, has been sent under the Biden presidency since the conflict sharply escalated with the invasion of Ukraine’s other territories in early 2022. It’s a total that dwarfs the total assistance EU nations and other US allies, including Nato members, have contributed, which amounts to roughly $13bn.

In all, the aid packages have included 30 separate uses of President Joe Biden’s drawdown authority, which allows the president to authorise transfers from the Department of Defence to allied nations in emergency situations. Two of those drawdowns have occurred already in 2023, each totaling more than $2bn in aid. Mr Biden’s administration can directly claim responsibility for authorising roughly $18.3bn in shipments to Ukraine, while the remainder is the result of congressional action.

The US’s contributions have also come in the form of training for Ukrainian forces: Thousands of Ukrainian troops are now receiving US-led instruction on new weapons systems and other gear at a base in Germany.

There continues to be heated debate around exactly what kind of aid to provide, as well. Ukraine’s government has increasingly asked for more sophisticated weapons, vehicles and defence systems, requests which most recently evolved to include fighter jets. Mr Biden and other Nato leaders have thrown cold water on that idea, stating that aid will be restricted to weaponry that cannot readily be used to strike targets in Russian-held territory. As of the latest shipment, the US aid has consisted of dozens of combat vehicles including Abrams tanks, anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, thousands of small arms and a wide swath of other equipment.

Some of that equipment has come after months of resistance at the White House and among the US’s Nato allies was worn down by their Ukrainian counterparts. There’s also the problem of providing equipment that can actually reach the battlefield and be utlised in a timely fashion; the shipments of Abrams tanks, for example, are not expected to arrive in Ukraine for many months.

“Much of U.S. assistance has been focused on providing systems and capabilities that Ukraine’s domestic defense industry cannot produce, as well as those that can be immediately deployed on the battlefield to increase the UAF’s resilience and ability to sustain combat operations,” notes the Congressional Research Service in a January 2023 memo outlining US assistance to Ukraine.

It isn’t yet clear whether Mr Biden will make an explicit call for more aid to Ukraine during his address on Tuesday. But what is certain is that the president believes that support for the beleaguered eastern European nation’s defence against Russia is a winning issue for him. It’s also one that he seems to believe has the potential to bridge the painful and gridlock-inducing divides which he pledged to address in his 2020 run for president, something that more and more Americans will be looking for progress on as he seeks the office again.