But Trump signaled a major shift this week when he announced a plan to sell weapons to NATO countries, which would then pass them along to Ukraine in its war against Russian forces.
After Russia launched the war in 2022, the Biden administration sent Ukraine $33.8 billion worth of weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpile, and another $33.2 billion in funds to help the country buy additional arms and hardware from the American defense industry.
But the United States began sending military support to Ukraine even before that.
What are the different types of military aid?
To get U.S. arms to Ukraine quickly, the Pentagon has taken them out of its own stockpile and transported them to the country’s border under a program called the presidential drawdown authority.
Congress funds that effort by giving the Pentagon money to purchase replacements.
On a slightly longer timeline, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative sends U.S. taxpayer money to Kyiv so that it can purchase goods directly from American defense firms. Those orders can take months or even years to be delivered, and are intended to offer a reliable supply of certain munitions into the future.
Trump announced a third way this week: The United States would sell arms to European nations, which would ship them to Ukraine or use them to replace weapons they send to the country from their existing stocks.
When did U.S. military aid to Ukraine begin?
The exact date is unclear, but according to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the Obama administration began providing nonlethal security assistance to Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in 2014.
The first Trump administration began offering weapons to Kyiv in 2017 in the form of hundreds of Javelin antitank missiles, according to a senior defense official who served during Trump’s first term.
Before the 2022 invasion, President Joe Biden sent thousands of Javelins to Ukraine, as well as Stinger air-defense missiles, the former defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy decisions.
The president authorized the first drawdown shipment for Ukraine in August 2021 that provided $60 million in weapons, services and training.
When Russian forces began massing near Ukraine later that year, the Biden administration announced a second drawdown worth $200 million. The third, worth $350 million, came the day after Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine in February 2022.
After that, around 70 more drawdown shipments followed, an average of one every two weeks, until the last was announced in early January. About $3.85 billion in funds for additional shipments has remained untouched since Trump returned to the White House.
What has the U.S. given Ukraine?
The United States has given Ukraine a wide variety of Western hardware, including air defense systems, tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers, rocket artillery, glide bombs, land mines, small arms and ammunition.
But Ukraine also relies on many Russian-made weapons and vehicles from its days as a Soviet republic, leading to supply challenges. The United States tried to alleviate those problems by gathering roughly 50 countries — a mix of former Soviet states, NATO members and others — to donate their own military hardware to Ukraine. But after Trump’s second inauguration, the United States handed leadership of the group to Britain.
The Pentagon has published partial listings of the weapons, vehicles and types of ammunition it has sent to Kyiv, but stopped updating the numbers for some more sensitive items.
For example, the Pentagon acknowledged sending 3 million 155-millimeter artillery shells to Ukraine as of April 2024. But it has sent another 17 shipments of the shells since then without specifying how many.
And for some of the most advanced weapons, like Patriot and Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS missiles, the Pentagon has not disclosed the quantities it has provided.
The State Department also provided nearly $1 billion for military training programs and hardware between 2014 and 2021, according to government documents.
Has the U.S. offered humanitarian assistance as well?
Yes.
In addition to funds allocated by Congress for humanitarian needs, the Pentagon has shipped medical equipment and trauma kits, as well as demining gear to help clear vast areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance.
What does Ukraine say it needs most urgently?
The answer has been the same since essentially the beginning of the war: air-defense missiles.
Ukraine exhausted its prewar arsenal of surface-to-air missiles rather quickly, and the only countries that make them are Russia and Belarus, which has supported Moscow’s war.
In December 2022, Biden agreed to give Ukraine a Patriot missile battery, an advanced ground-based air-defense system. Two more followed, along with an unknown number of interceptor missiles that have provided the only effective means of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.
The Pentagon refurbished long-retired HAWK air defense systems for Ukraine because so many countries still operate them and could contribute missiles for them to fire.
The Defense Department also developed a way to launch some types of U.S.-made air-to-air missiles from Soviet-era air-defense ground vehicles — a mashup often called FrankenSAM.
On Monday, Trump indicated he was willing to send one or more Patriot batteries to Ukraine, but his administration has not yet provided any details.
