The US is providing $1.2 billion to Ukraine to buy air defense missiles and other critical equipment.

WASHINGTON — The United States will provide Ukraine with up to $1.2 billion to purchase additional air defense missiles, artillery munitions and satellite imagery from commercial companies, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The financial support is part of a program called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows Kiev to purchase goods directly from the defense industry.

“The USAI gives us the opportunity to leverage the power and capabilities of the private sector to support Ukraine’s medium- and long-term security assistance needs,” said Brig. General Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, on Tuesday afternoon during a briefing to reporters.

From 2016 to 2021, Washington gave Kiev more than $1.32 billion as part of the same initiative, according to government data. The new aid announcement brings the total provided under the same initiative since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to nearly $14.6 billion.

Funds provided as part of the initiative have been spent on the purchase of attack drones, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Soviet caliber And NATO standard artillery ammunitioncoastal defense missiles, armored riverboats, M1 Abrams tanks, NASAMS air defense missile launchers, M142 HIMARS vehicles and the guided missiles they fire among many others.

The goods will arrive in Ukraine in the coming months and years as defense companies produce them. The aid announced Tuesday is separate from the 37 previously announced aid packages containing military hardware that have been pulled from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile since August 2021, worth at least $21 billion in total.

A significant portion of the $1.2 billion in new funds for Ukraine will go to purchasing air defense missiles for Kiev to repel Russian airstrikes, General Ryder said. Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, has repeatedly been the target of Russian attacks, including on Monday and early Tuesday.

“We will continue to deploy ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign airspace and to help Ukraine defend its citizens against Russian cruise missiles and Iranian drones,” he said. “This is something that we will pursue in both the short and long term.”

General Ryder also confirmed reports that an American-made Patriot air defense system supplied to Ukraine was shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile last Thursday.

The Kinzhal, an air-launched version of an Iskander ballistic missileis believed to fit the definition of a hypersonic weapon – namely, that it can fly and maneuver at speeds equal to or greater than five times the speed of sound, a characteristic intended to defeat anti-missile defenses.

In addition to a single US-supplied Patriot system, the Ukrainians also operate one provided by the NetherlandsGeneral Ryder said, but deferred questions to the Ukrainian government about what they had been used to attack the Russian Kinzhal.

Aishvarya Kavi reporting contributed.