US officials said the United States, which is preparing to receive Ukraine’s president on Wednesday, will send new military aid, including and for the first time Patriot missiles, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The same sources, who requested not to be identified as details of the aid have not yet been released, added that the package will include precision bombs for fighter jets in addition to the Patriots, in what is an expansion by the US of the advanced type. weapons it will send to Ukraine to bolster the country’s air defenses against what has been an increasing barrage of Russian missile strikes.
The package, expected to be announced later today, will include nearly $1 billion (€942 million) in weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpiles and an additional $800 million (€753 million) in funding through the Security Assistance of Ukraine, which finances weapons. , ammunition, training and other forms of assistance, added the same sources cited by the AP.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other country officials have urged Western leaders to provide more advanced weapons, including Patriot, the most advanced surface-to-air missile system supplied to Ukraine by the West to help repel Russian airstrikes.
The timing of the military aid announcement comes as Zelensky is about to begin his first visit outside Ukraine since the outbreak of war in February.
That aid will also come as Congress is about to approve another $ 44.9 billion (42 billion euros) in aid to Ukraine.
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that the delivery of the advanced surface-to-air missile system would be considered a provocation and that the Patriots and any crews accompanying them would be legitimate targets for the Moscow military.
For Washington, bolstering support for Ukraine does not mean going straight to war with Russia.
Training to maneuver Patriot missiles could take several weeks and will be conducted by US troops at the Grafenwoehr training ground in Germany. To date, all training of Ukrainian armed forces by the US and the West has taken place in European countries.
The relief package also includes an undetermined number of Joint Direct Strike Munitions, or JDAM, missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, thousands of artillery ammunition, trucks and HARM air-to-surface anti-radiation missiles. officials, quoted by the AP.
According to the authorities, the urgent demands of the Ukrainian leadership and the destruction of the country’s energy supply infrastructure, essential during the winter, eventually trumped US reservations about supplying the Patriots.
Source: DN
