US announces new $200m military aid package for Ukraine

The United States has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $200 million, as the Ukrainian troops are struggling to penetrate heavy Russian fortifications as part of their so-called counteroffensive.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday that the package included artillery rounds and dozens of tactical vehicles and mine-clearing gear.

“Today we are announcing the next package of security assistance to aid Ukraine... This package, which is valued at $200 million, is being executed from previously authorized Presidential Drawdown Authority, includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment,” Blinken said.

Military aid provided through Presidential Drawdown Authority includes equipment from existing US Department of Defense (DoD) inventories instead of purchases from contractors.

The package also includes additional artillery and tank ammunition, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and Patriot air defense systems, TOW missiles and tactical vehicles, the US Department of Defense said in a statement on Monday.

It also vowed that the US and its allies will continue to “provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements.”

The new weapons mark the 44th round of assistance since the conflict with Russia broke out last year.

The new package comes as Ukrainian forces scramble to penetrate powerful Russian defenses erected across a 600-mile (1,000km) frontline.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s defense ministry Aleksey Reznikov said his forces were being slowed by large Russian minefields, calling them a “serious obstacle” to the counteroffensive they launched in June.

Late last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive failed.

Putin mocks Ukraine counteroffensive as failure with huge losses due to ‘stupidity’

Russia

‘US hopes war drags on for long time’

In response to the new aid package, Russia’s ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said the US is deeply embroiled in the war and hopes that it drags on for a long time.

“Washington is sinking deeper and deeper into the confrontation with Russia while using Ukrainians as proxies,” Antonov said in a statement published on the Russian embassy’s Telegram channel.

Referring to Washington’s continued aid for the Kiev regime, the ambassador said “It looks like the [US] administration cannot figure out how to get out of the bloody project and save its face at the same time.”

“The White House obviously does not care about the rapid decline in the level of support for such a strategy in American society. Instead, it hopes that the conflict will drag on for a long time.”

The statement noted that the US weapons are “used by Kiev criminals against peaceful citizens and civilian facilities.”

Russia began what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Moscow said it was aimed at defending Ukraine’s pro-Russia population in Donetsk and Luhansk, eastern Ukrainian regions, against persecution by Kiev.

Moscow has frequently warned that a continued supply of Western arms and military equipment for the Ukrainian military would only prolong the war.

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