The US will splash out another $325 million replacing armored vehicles destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine's costly counter-offensive.
Two anonymous US Department of Defense officials leaked the plans to an American broadcaster late on Monday, ahead of the official announcement scheduled for Tuesday.
According to the report, the DoD would send additional M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to replace those lost over the past week in fighting on the southern front in Zaporozhye and Donetsk.
US media had earlier reported that 16 of the 109 Bradley IFVs supplied had been destroyed so far, with two more damaged. That was double the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) figure of eight Bradleys destroyed by Sunday night.
Babb's sources said the Pentagon would also send more Stryker armored personnel carriers (APCs) — although none of those vehicles have yet been reported destroyed — plus ammunition for the HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) and NASAMS surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries.
All those systems have been supplied by the US and its allies to Ukraine to sustain its conflict with Russia.
On Tuesday the Russian MoD released a video of troops capturing damaged and abandoned Bradleys and German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs).
Several newly-formed brigades, trained and equipped by NATO member states, had already launched major assaults against deeply-echeloned Russian defenses a week earlier on Sunday June 4.
Since then they have taken thousands of casualties and lost hundreds of tanks and other armored vehicles, including at least 15 Leopard 2s.
When asked by reporters in about the counteroffensive on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky replied cryptically that "Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place."
Zelensky made his comments at a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had made a surprise visit to Kiev with Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland — the granddaughter of a prominent Ukrainian Nazi collaborator — to announce another $500 million in military aid to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian armed forces are expected to receive 31 M1 Abrams MBTs from the US in coming months, albeit with their most advanced equipment and depleted uranium armor removed in case they are captured by Russian troops.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands will also send up to 110 of the lightly-armored ,1960s-vintage Leopard 1 tanks between July and the end of the year. A squadron of 14 Challenger 2 MBTs already supplied by the UK have yet to be seen in action.