Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - President Joe Biden announced a new $1 billion infusion of arms for Ukraine on Wednesday, including anti...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - President Joe Biden announced a new $1 billion infusion of arms for Ukraine on Wednesday, including anti-ship missile systems, artillery rockets, howitzers, and ammunition.
Biden claimed he alerted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about the new weaponry during a phone contact with him.
"The United States is providing Ukraine with another $1 billion in security support, including new artillery and coastal defence weaponry, as well as artillery ammunition and advanced rocket systems," Biden said in a statement following the 41-minute talk.
The president also announced an extra $225 million in humanitarian aid to support people in Ukraine, including safe drinking water, necessary medical supplies and services, food, shelter, and cash to help families buy necessities.
According to the Pentagon, Ukraine's latest arms supplies contain 18 howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition, two Harpoon coastal defence systems, artillery rockets, secure radios, thousands of night vision devices, and training funding.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, said he spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Kyiv to express gratitude for the US' "critical military assistance."
"(I) underlined the urgent necessity for more heavy weapons provided on a more regular basis," he tweeted.
The aid supplies, which arrive in Brussels as US Military Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with allies, are divided into two categories: excess defence products from US stocks and other weaponry supported under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a separate congressionally authorised programme.
"I would want to say to the Western countries supplying ammunition to Ukraine - the blood of civilians is on your hands," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Wednesday, accusing them of "waging a proxy war with Russia."
In the face of heightened Russian pressure in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine is asking the US and other Western nations for faster armament supply.
"We need all these weapons to be concentrated at a moment to defeat the Russians, not just keep coming every two or three weeks," Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told reporters at a German Marshall Fund event.
After gaining assurances from Kyiv that they would not be used to fire targets inside Russian territory, the Biden administration revealed a proposal to provide Ukraine M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems in May. To prevent exacerbating the Ukraine conflict, Biden imposed the stipulation.
According to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the rocket artillery in this aid package would have the same range as previous US rocket shipments and would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, which allows the president to authorise the transfer of articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval in the event of an emergency.
The United States is sending ground-based Harpoon launchers for the first time. According to Reuters, the US was working on alternative solutions in May, including removing a launcher off a US ship to assist Ukraine in obtaining Harpoon missile launch capability.
According to analysts and industry executives, Boeing's Harpoon missiles cost around $1.5 million each.
