Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, this morning to discuss battlefield dynamics and U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary. 

This security assistance provides key capabilities to support Ukraine’s most urgent battlefield needs, including air defense, munitions for rocket systems and artillery and antitank weapons, Ryder said. 

This announcement is the 71st tranche of equipment to be provided from Defense Department inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. This presidential drawdown authority package has an estimated value of $725 million, per a DOD press release today. 

In other news, the ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist organization Lebanese Hezbollah is holding, with the plan for the Lebanese Armed Forces to provide security in southern Lebanon. 

Army Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers III, commander, U.S. Special Operations Command Central, is working with the State Department to help coordinate with the Israeli Defense Forces, France and others to ensure that the LAF has the training, capacity and strategy to provide security there, Ryder said. 

Jeffers will serve as a co-chair, alongside Amos Hochstein, senior advisor to President Joe Biden, for the implementation and monitoring mechanism of the cessation of hostilities, according to a Nov. 29 U.S. Central Command press release. 

The monitoring and implementation activities will be chaired by the United States and consist of the LAF, Israel Defense Forces, the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon and France, per the press release. 

Separately, Ryder said DOD is closely monitoring events around the Aleppo area of northwest Syria, where the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is battling forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

The U.S. is not involved in the fighting, he said, adding that the U.S., together with allies and partners, is urging de-escalation.  

DOD remains fully prepared to defend and protect U.S. personnel and assets deployed to the region, including U.S. forces in eastern Syria, who are there to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS so it can never again resurge, Ryder said.

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