U.S. officers mentioned on Tuesday that the Biden administration was sending as much as $400 million in extra army support to Ukraine, together with artillery, air defenses and mine-clearing tools, in an effort to assist replenish Kyiv’s forces as their counteroffensive grinds on.
Included within the package deal drawn from Pentagon stockpiles are 32 Stryker armored personnel carriers, mine-clearing tools and munitions for Patriot antimissile programs and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, the officers mentioned.
The package deal additionally consists of munitions for Stinger antiaircraft programs and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, in addition to munitions for Javelin and different anti-tank weapons.
The United States can also be sending extra ammunition for 155-millimeter and 105-millimeter artillery, Hydra-70 plane rockets, Hornet microdrones, night-vision units and spare elements for broken tools.
The newest army support comes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive within the nation’s southeast advances extra slowly than anticipated by dense Russian minefields and different defenses. Russia has additionally not too long ago launched a few of the battle’s most ferocious assaults on Odesa, a Ukrainian port metropolis, after the Kremlin pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an settlement that allowed for the export of Ukrainian grain by sea.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine known as on Western allies to produce extra air protection tools and different army support after Russian assaults hit Odesa’s cultural websites and port infrastructure.
“We must defend Odesa,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned in a Twitter submit after chatting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain, including: “Ukraine urgently needs to strengthen its air defense to protect its historical heritage and continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative.”
The new American help package deal brings the whole quantity of U.S. army support delivered or dedicated to Ukraine to $43 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“The people of Ukraine continue to bravely defend their country against Russia’s aggression while Russia continues its relentless and vicious attacks that are killing Ukrainian civilians and destroying civil infrastructure,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken mentioned in an announcement.
Source: www.nytimes.com