Ukraine is a key regional strategic partner that has undertaken significant efforts to reform its military and increase its interoperability with NATO. Our policy is centered on supporting Ukraine as it advances reforms to strengthen democratic institutions, fight corruption, and promote conditions for economic growth and competition. The United States has offered further support to Ukraine in response to Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and its occupation following the unlawful seizure of Crimea. The United States does not, and will not ever, recognize Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea, and continues to work with our partners to seek a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The United States remains dedicated to assisting Ukraine to advance its Euro-Atlantic aspirations in support of a secure, prosperous, democratic, and free Ukraine. The U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership highlights the importance of the bilateral relationship and the continued commitment of the United States to support enhanced engagement between NATO and Ukraine. Additionally, Ukraine has undertaken significant efforts to reform and modernize its defense sector in line with NATO principles and standards. The United States and its Allies have established a Multinational Joint Commission and Joint Multinational Training Group to coordinate international efforts and help build Ukraine’s defense capacity to deter further Russian aggression.
Since 2014, the U.S. Departments of State and Defense have committed over $2.7 billion in training and equipment to help Ukraine preserve its territorial integrity, secure its borders, and improve interoperability with NATO. This includes $721 million in State Department-funded Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and $1.35 billion under DoD’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Ukraine also received about $19.7 million in IMET assistance between 2014 and 2021 to support professional military education for approximately 370 junior, mid-level, and senior military officers at Department of Defense (DoD) schools in the United States. In December 2021, the President authorized a $200 million drawdown for the immediate transfer of DoD stocks to Ukraine. We are in close touch with our Ukrainian partners and NATO Allies to authorize and facilitate additional assistance to Ukraine, as well as employing all available security cooperation tools available to us.
U.S. security assistance has enhanced the readiness, command and control, and situational awareness of Ukrainian forces through the provision of both non-lethal and lethal defensive items. This includes High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, secure communications, satellite imagery and analysis support, counter-battery radars, night vision devices and thermal scopes, sniper rifles, and equipment to support military medical treatment and combat evacuation procedures. We have also provided advisory services to reduce corruption and increase transparency within the Ministry of Defense and to help develop a modern combat training center.
More recently, our security assistance has focused on enhancing Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territorial waters. In June 2020, the U.S. Government notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Ukraine of up to sixteen Mark VI patrol boats worth an estimated $600 million. The first tranche of these is being procured with FMF, while USAI will separately fund an additional two. An initial eight Mark VIs are expected join five former U.S. Coast Guard Island-class patrol craft, which are being provided through the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program and refurbished with a combination of Ukrainian national funds and FMF. Together, these Mark VI and Island-class patrol boats will constitute a small ‘mosquito fleet’ of armed patrol craft that is capable of countering potential Russian aggression in Ukrainian territorial waters. The patrol boats will also enable Ukraine’s integration into a regional Black Sea Maritime Domain Awareness program, to which the United States has contributed $142 million in FMF.
The United States has $595.9 million in active government-to-government sales cases with Ukraine under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system. FMS sales notified to Congress are listed , and recent significant prior sales include: the 2018 sale of 210 Javelin anti-armor missiles, which has provided Ukraine with a critical anti-armor capability; the 2019 sale of 150 additional Javelins; and the 2020 Mark VI patrol boats sale. The Javelin sales were funded by a mixture of State Department FMF and Ukrainian national funds.
From 2015 through 2019, the United States also authorized the permanent export of over $287 million in defense articles to Ukraine via the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) process. The top categories of DCS to Ukraine during that period were Ammunition and Ordnance ($129 million); Fire Control, Laser, Imaging, and Guidance Equipment ($56 million); and Firearms and Related Articles ($54 million).
In addition, since 2017, the Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation has provided over $17 million in Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining, and Related Programs support to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine’s Maritime Border Guard Detachment through the Export Control and Border Security (EXBS) Program. These efforts serve to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity and to counter Russian aggression in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea through the development of small-boat interdiction and Rapid Response Units. EXBS assistance also bolsters Ukraine’s ability to effectively control, detect, and investigate trade in WMD, military, and other strategic technologies. This initiative supports building new operational, maintenance, and training facilities (including RRU stations in Mariupol, Berdyansk, and Odesa), as well as providing equipment, training, and mentoring. The effort not only replaces facilities lost during Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea, but provides modernized equipment, training, and procedures to enhance Maritime Guard operational capabilities.
Ukraine is a significant troop contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations, with nearly 300 personnel currently deployed to six missions, including critical helicopters to the UN Organizational Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ukraine is also a partner country of the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), and has benefited from over $4 million in peace operations capacity building assistance.
The Global Security Contingency Fund, a joint program of the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, has provided over $23 million in training, advisory services, and equipment to assist the Government of Ukraine to further develop the tactical, operational, and institutional capacities of its Special Operations Forces, National Guard, conventional forces, non-commissioned officer corps, and combat medical care.
From 2004 to 2020, the United States provided more than $68 million to address the legacy of the large quantities of conventional arms and ammunition that Ukraine inherited after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as to provide battle area clearance along the line of contact between the Ukrainian government and Russian-supported anti-government forces in eastern Ukraine. In 2020 alone, the U.S. government funded Conventional Weapons Destruction programs that cleared and returned over 824,000 square meters (204 acres) of land to local communities. In addition, as the Lead Nation for the NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund, the U.S. government funded the destruction or demilitarization of 1,855 U.S. tons of munitions.
Ukraine is partnered with the California National Guard under the State Partnership Program (SPP) . Established in 1993, the SPP’s goal was to assist former Warsaw Pact and Soviet states in their democracy efforts and to reform their defense forces following the Soviet Union’s collapse. Over the past 28 years, the California National Guard conducted regular military-to-military engagements with Ukrainian forces, contributing to Ukraine’s continued defense modernization.
Ukraine participates in multiple bilateral and multilateral military exercises with the United States, EU, and NATO Allies, to include: Rapid Trident, Sea Breeze, and Cossack Mace.
