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🧵Jake Sullivan: Today, on behalf of President Biden, I'm announcing an emergency package of security assistance of $300 million worth of weapons and equipment to address some of Ukraine's pressing needs.
This is possible because of unanticipated cost savings in contracts that DOD negotiated to replace equipment we've already sent to Ukraine through previous drawdowns.
We're able to use these cost savings to make this modest amount of new security assistance available.
Right now without impacting U.S. military readiness. And the President has directed his team to use these cost savings. This emergency package that we're announcing contains a large tranche of artillery rounds and (inaudible) for the Himars.
It is assistance that Ukraine desperately needs to hold the line against Russian attacks, and to push back against the continuing Russian onslaught in the Eastern and other parts of Ukraine.
This ammunition will keep Ukraine's guns firing for a period, but only a short period it is nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the weeks to come.
It goes without saying this package does not displace and should not delay the critical need to pass the bipartisan national security bill.
As you all know, …& President Biden said it to the entire nation in the State of the Union last week that we cannot provide ongoing assistance to Ukraine without significantly impacting our military readiness, absent congressional action.
That remains the case, despite this modest amount of cost savings that we are putting to use on an urgent basis.
Congress must act. The House of Representatives must pass the bipartisan national security supplemental as soon as possible.
Congress must act. The House of Representatives must pass the bipartisan national security supplemental as soon as possible.
We all know that if it came up for a vote, it would pass on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, just as it did in the Senate.
And there is no other way around this.
And there is no other way around this.
The House has got to pass the supplemental as soon as possible to allow us to continue the flow of vital security…assistance to Ukraine to replenish the US military's munitions stocks, to invest in our industrial base and to support jobs in 40 states across the United States.
The clock is ticking and we need to see action as rapidly as possible, even as we do everything in our power to get Ukraine what it needs in its hour of need.
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