President Joe Biden has announced a $700 million military aid package to provide timely and critical aid to the Ukrainian military in its fight against the Russian invasion.
The New weaponry, which will include powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, will enable the Ukrainian forces to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Ukraine will get the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters and ammunition.
The HIMARS rockets have a range of about 70 kilometers, according to the Pentagon.
“Thanks to the additional funding for Ukraine, passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, the United States will be able to keep providing Ukraine with more of the weapons that they are using so effectively to repel Russian attacks,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.
He vowed that the United States will stand with its Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself.
Meanwhile, as Russia makes more inroads into Ukrainian territory, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces are now in control of 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
Addressing the Luxembourg parliament, he said the Donbas region has been “almost entirely destroyed.”
More than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to Russia since the invasion, according to him.
Street fighting is raging in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk, which has almost fallen to Russian forces, says Luhansk’s regional chief.
Taking Severodonetsk would mean Russia controls almost all of Luhansk, in the eastern Donbas region.
“America’s goal is straightforward: We want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression,” Biden wrote. He made it clear that Washington does not seek a war between NATO and Russia.
While noting that currently there are no indications that Russia has intent to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Biden warned that any use of nuclear weapons in this conflict would entail severe consequences.
Biden vowed that the United States will not try to bring about Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s ouster in Moscow.
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