By Ellen Knickmeyer | Related Press
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration mentioned Monday it was delivery its largest but direct supply of weapons to Ukraine as that nation prepares for a doubtlessly decisive counteroffensive within the south in opposition to Russia, sending $1 billion in rockets, ammunition and different materials to Ukraine from Protection Division stockpiles.
The brand new U.S. arms cargo would additional strengthen Ukraine because it mounts the counteroffensive, which analysts say for the primary time might permit Kyiv to form the course of the remainder of the conflict, now on the half-year mark.
Kyiv goals to push Russian troops again out of Kherson and different southern territory close to the Dnipro River. Russia in current days was shifting troops and tools within the path of the southern port cities to stave off the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“At each stage of this battle, we've been centered on getting the Ukrainians what they want, relying on the evolving circumstances on the battlefield,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of protection for coverage, mentioned Monday in asserting the brand new weapons cargo.
The brand new U.S. help consists of extra rockets for the Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Methods, or HIMARS, in addition to hundreds of artillery rounds, mortar methods, Javelins and different ammunition and tools. Army commanders and different U.S. officers say the HIMARS and artillery methods have been essential in Ukraine’s battle to dam Russia from taking extra floor.
Whereas the U.S. has already offered 16 HIMARS to Ukraine, Kahl mentioned the brand new package deal doesn't embrace extra ones.
“These will not be methods that we assess you want within the lots of to have the kind of results” wanted, Kahl mentioned. “These are precision-guided methods for very specific varieties of targets and the Ukrainians are utilizing them as such.”
He declined to say how lots of the precision-guided missile methods for the HIMARS have been included in Monday’s announcement, however mentioned the U.S. has offered “a number of lots of” of them in current weeks.
The newest announcement brings the full U.S. safety help dedicated to Ukraine by the Biden administration to greater than $9 billion.
In his nightly video deal with, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US for the package deal, and mentioned “100% of it we'll use to guard freedom, our frequent freedom.”
Till now, the most important single safety help package deal announcement was for $1 billion on June 15. However that help included $350 million in presidential drawdown authority, and one other $650 million underneath the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative, which gives funding for coaching, tools and different safety wants that may be purchased from different international locations or corporations.
Monday’s package deal permits the U.S. to ship weapons methods and different tools extra shortly because it takes them off the Protection Division cabinets.
Along with the rockets for the HIMARS, it consists of 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery, 20 mortar methods and 20,000 rounds for them, 1,000 shoulder-mounted Javelin rockets, and different arms, explosives and medical tools.
For the final 4 months of the conflict, Russia has focused on capturing the Donbas area of jap Ukraine, the place pro-Moscow separatists have managed some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years. Russian forces have made gradual headway within the area whereas launching missile and rocket assaults to curtail the actions of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.
Kahl estimated that Russian forces have sustained as much as 80,000 deaths and accidents within the combating, although he didn't break down the determine with an estimate of forces killed.
He mentioned the Russian troops have managed to achieve “incremental” floor in jap Ukraine, though not in current weeks. “However that has come at extraordinary price to the Russian army due to how properly the Ukrainian army has carried out and all the help that the Ukrainian army has gotten. And I feel now, circumstances within the east have basically stabilized and the main target is de facto shifting to the south.”
The brand new funding is being paid for by way of $40 billion in financial and safety help for Ukraine authorized by Congress in Could.
That is the 18th time the Pentagon has offered tools from Protection Division shares to Ukraine since August 2021.
The U.S. and allies nonetheless are evaluating whether or not to produce plane to Ukraine, Kahl mentioned. It’s “not inconceivable that western plane down the highway could possibly be a part of the combo,” he mentioned.
Zelenskyy early within the conflict made near-daily appeals for warplanes, calling them important to defending Ukraine’s skies. The U.S. and another NATO international locations feared that would draw them into extra direct involvement with Ukraine’s conflict in opposition to Russia, and haven't offered Western plane.
Individually Monday, the Treasury Division mentioned it was sending $3 billion extra in direct financial help to Ukraine. That’s a part of a beforehand authorized $7.5 billion in financial help, with $1.5 billion but to be disbursed.
Related Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.