The United States has approved sending a new package worth of $500 million dollars to Ukraine amid warnings that supply of further arms would prolong the 15-months of conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
US to send new package of weapons to Ukraine
28 Jun 2023 - 10:45
The United States has approved sending a new package worth of $500 million dollars to Ukraine amid warnings that supply of further arms would prolong the 15-months of conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
This is the forty-first US shipment of military aid to Kiev since Moscow started its special military operation in Donbas in February 2022.
"Today, the Biden-Harris administration is announcing a new security assistance package for Ukraine, as we continue to stand with the people of Ukraine," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said on Tuesday.
The US administration announced its plan to send up to $500 million in military aid to Ukraine.
The new shipment will reportedly include more than 50 armored vehicles (Bradley and Stryker vehicles) in addition to various kinds of missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the Patriot air defense systems.
The shipment will also include Javelin and high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles, demolition munitions, obstacle-clearing equipment and a wide range of artillery rounds and other ammunition.
The US military aid is aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s forces in its massive counteroffensive, which started early this month, yet failed to make significant advancement on the front line.
Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, US media has regularly reported on the weapons shipments sent by the United States to beef up Kiev's fighting forces, with other NATO members delivering tens of billions in military aid, as well.
By January, the United States and its allies had provided Ukraine with over 100 million rounds of small arms ammunition, over a million rounds of artillery shells, and over 100,000 tank rounds.
In the meantime, the Pentagon’s policy chief claimed that the United States military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia has placed the country’s arms industry under strain.
“The effort to assist the Ukrainians has put stress” on the country’s arms industry, said Colin Kahl, under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at a NATO Youth Summit in early June.
Meanwhile, due to the nonstop supply of arms to Ukraine, China has placed the blame on the West for the ongoing war against Russia.
“If we really want to stop war, save lives and achieve peace, we should stop sending weapons to the battlefield," Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui told reporters in Beijing on June 2.
Russia also sees the flooding of Ukraine with weapons from the West as a futile effort to change the outcome of the war. Moscow says supplying Kiev with more weapons will only add to the death and destruction.
Story Code: 598288