The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $200 million worth of weapons and ammunition to support a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has encountered significant obstacles in countering Russian defences, US government sources said on Wednesday.
The latest military aid package will include missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Systems (Himars) and the Patriot air defense system, as well as shells for howitzers and tanks, Javelin rockets, mine clearance equipment, 12 million rounds of ammunition for small arms and demolition ammunition, said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press (AP) agency.
The Joe Biden-led government is expected to petition Congress for the new supplementary aid package to maintain support for kyiv.
Ukraine has received more than US$43 billion since Russia invaded the country last year.
These funds made it possible to provide weapon systems and millions of rounds of ammunition to fight the Russian army.
The Biden administration is funding Ukraine’s war effort through two programs, one drawing weapons from existing US arsenals, while the other, Ukraine Security Assistance (USAI), funds long-term contracts for larger weapon systems such as tanks that need to be built. or modified by defense contractors.
Both loans are guaranteed until the end of the fiscal year, September 30.
“We are confident that we can continue to provide Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield,” Deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian forces claimed on Wednesday that they had reached Russia’s first defensive line on the southern front, as part of the counteroffensive that seeks to reach the coast and isolate the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula.
The deputy commander of the Ukrainian forces in the south of the country, Sergei Kuzmin, stressed that his troops advanced several hundred meters near the strategic village of Robotyne, in the heart of the Zaporizhia region.
“We have reached the front line of the occupiers. The first line is very difficult, but our soldiers are advancing,” he guaranteed, according to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, quoted by the Efe agency.
Kuzmin stressed that these operations are targeting the city of Melitopol, the capture of which would open the way for the Ukrainians to reach the Azov Sea.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
Source: TSF
