US sending $200 million in security aid to Kyiv, with an additional six billion after a system 'error' was found

(Patria) - The United States announced it will send $200 million in new security assistance to Ukraine, including air defense munitions, artillery shells, and additional mine-clearing equipment, Reuters reports.

The aid will also include anti-armor weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Two U.S. officials told Reuters last Monday that Washington would begin to tap $6.2 billion in funds discovered after a Pentagon accounting error overstated billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.

The Pentagon said in May that it had mistakenly assigned a higher value than warranted to
U.S. arms delivered to Kyiv when personnel used a “replacement cost”
instead of an “as-is value” to tally billions of dollars worth of ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine.

Ukraine needs weapons that can be delivered from U.S. stocks in days or weeks to continue repelling Russia’s invasion. The accounting error works in Kyiv’s favor as more equipment can be sent.

“I want to thank the United States today for the new package. Munitions for Patriots, for HIMARS, artillery, Javelines, and much more. These are much-needed things,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address.

“There will be more work with our partners for defense soon,” he added.

The beginning of the use of these discovered funds is significant as they represent the last of the
previously authorized by Congress $25.5 billion in presidential drawdown authority (PDA) that the administration can use to deliver weapons from U.S. stocks in emergencies, U.S. officials said.

The $200 million aid would be the first tranche of the aforementioned $6.2 billion, officials said