U.S. officers mentioned Tuesday that the Biden administration has despatched as much as $400 million in extra army support to Ukraine, together with artillery, air protection and mine-clearing gear, to assist replenish Kiev’s forces as their counteroffensive continues.
The bundle retrieved from Pentagon stockpiles contains a number of Stryker armored personnel carriers, mine-clearing gear and ammunition for Patriot Anti-Missile Programs and the Nationwide Superior Floor-to-Air Missile Programs, or NASAMS, officers mentioned.
The bundle additionally contains ammunition for the Stinger and Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Programs, or HIMARS, in addition to ammunition for the Javelin and different anti-tank weapons.
The newest army support comes because the Ukrainian counter-offensive within the nation’s southeast strikes extra slowly than anticipated by dense Russian minefields and different defenses. Russia additionally not too long ago launched one in every of its most brutal assaults on Odessa, the Ukrainian port metropolis, after the Kremlin withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an settlement that allowed Ukraine’s grain to be exported by sea.
Earlier Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies to offer extra air defenses and different army help after Russian assaults hit Odesa’s cultural websites and port infrastructure.
“We’ve got to defend Odessa,” Zelensky mentioned in a put up on twitter after talking with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, including: “Ukraine urgently must strengthen its air defenses to guard its historic heritage and proceed the Black Sea Grain Initiative.”
The brand new US support bundle brings the whole quantity of US army support delivered or allotted to Ukraine to $43 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
