WASHINGTON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Nearly $2.7 billion (£2.3 billion) in new aid has been approved by the US for Ukraine and its allies, including $675 million for weaponry to help Ukraine fight Russia.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the arms package at the US air station in Ramstein, Germany. Many other ministers participated in the meeting.
Howitzers, Humvee vehicles, armoured ambulances, munitions, and anti-tank systems are included in the aid package.
The US has already committed at least $13 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
The Biden government announced on Thursday that it had set aside $2 billion in investments for long-term support to strengthen Ukraine’s security along with18 of its neighbours, including both members and non-members of NATO at risk from future aggression from Russia.
It promised to inform Congress of the aid strategy.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine as his colleague asked the allies of Ukraine to pledge their support for the nation for as long as necessary and be ready to adjust to the type of support offered.
It meant acting quickly to innovate and push their entire defence industrial basis to give Ukraine the tools it would require, Mr. Austin said.
They were now seeing the demonstrable success of their combined efforts on the battlefield, he said, describing Russia’s invasion as a “illegal, imperial, and indefensible war of conquest.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Wednesday that his nation’s military had recently successfully carried out attacks against Russian forces, which had taken control over Ukraine’s large areas in the east and in the south and taken back the settlements close to the city of Kharkiv in the country’s northeast.
He gave no specifics, though both pro-Russian sources and Ukrainian sources claim that the war was being fought near Balakleya, which is about 60 kilometres (38 miles) south-east of Kharkiv.
There are indications that Ukraine is making genuine military progress, the Defence Secretary of UK, Ben Wallace said. Targeting Russian supply lines and command centres is being assisted by long-range artillery and rockets supplied by the West.
The reverses on Wednesday were rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said: “We have not lost anything and will not lose anything.”
Although this claim has been extensively denied, Russia says that it in a fight with neo-Nazis in Ukraine and feels threatened by it close ties between the NATO alliances and Ukraine.
At least 5,718 civilians have lost their lives to the war and 8,199 have suffered injuries since the invasion on February 24. In addition, over seven million Ukrainians have been recorded in the refugee camps across Europe. The numbers of soldiers who died or suffered injuries were still unknown.
Russia, a major provider of energy, and the West, which imposed severe sanctions in response to the invasion, are engaged in a financial war.
