The United States on Monday announced new aid to Ukraine of $457.5 million (an identical amount in euros) to fund security services, including police, border guards and war crime investigators.
“Our shipments of protective equipment, medical equipment and armored vehicles have significantly reduced the number of Ukrainian civilian deaths”declared US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he announced this support.
“The United States stands with the Ukrainian people and remains committed to supporting a democratic, independent and sovereign Ukraine”the State Department added in a statement.
This new package, which brings total US aid to Ukrainian security forces to $645 million (a similar amount in euros), comes on top of the billions of dollars in military aid that Washington has sent to Kiev.
Recently, Ukrainian authorities announced the discovery of hundreds of graves in a forest near the Russian-owned town of Izium, which had been recaptured by Ukrainian forces.
The bodies of 447 people, most of them civilians, were found, some showed signs of torture, allegedly victims of violence by Russian soldiers.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the UN General Assembly about the discovery of two new mass graves in zones liberated from Russian occupation and demanded that Russia be “punished” for these war crimes.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already resulted in more than 13 million people having fled — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.4 million to European countries — according to the most recent UN data, which rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community at large, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and to impose political and economic sanctions on Russia.
Source: DN
