It’s been nearly a year since Russia began their invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Now, Ukraine is now being supplied by one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States of America. 

Some may call it a proxy war and others may call it defense, but the United States has sent a total of nearly 65 billion dollars in war supplies to Ukraine. Some of the more noteworthy defense packages the United States has sent to Ukraine include the HIMARS rocket system, which was given to Ukraine this past summer. The HIMARS system stands for High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System and fires guided missiles from a mobile platform such as a truck. The United States also recently began to send patriot missile systems to Ukraine. The Patriot missile system is a missile system that is capable of tracking inbound missiles and destroying them. These are all game changers for Ukraine’s military, but Ukraine still claims it’s not enough and they need more. 

“We have artillery, yes, thank you [United States]; is it enough? Honestly, not really,” stated Ukrainian President Zelensky during an address to the U.S. Congress on Dec. 21, 2022. 

Many officials have criticized Zelensky’s comment, stating that the United States does not have to help Ukraine at all, and that Zelensky should be more grateful. 

Despite this, Ukraine has been continuing to request weapons from the United States and receiving many. In January of 2023, the United States announced that they would be sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV) as well as Stryker armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine. These are both armored and advanced vehicles from the United States’ arsenal. 

Recently, Ukraine has also requested M1 Abrams main battle tanks from the United States. The M1 Abrams is the United States’ most advanced and only tank, these tanks feature state of the art technology that, if it was to fall into Russian hands, would expose sensitive material to the Russian government. However, on Jan. 25, 2023, President Biden announced that the United States will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, and that the United States will train Ukrainian crews on how to operate the tanks. These tanks will not be delivered immediately and will instead take months to be delivered to Ukraine. 

It will surely be interesting to witness how these vehicles supplied by the United States will benefit Ukraine, and how drastically these vehicles could change the outcome of the war.