US announces billions worth of military assistance to Ukraine
The United States has formally announced $2.6 billion worth of military assistance for Ukraine, prompting Russia to warn that Washington only seeks to prolong the conflict.
The aid features three air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets, and fuel trucks, the US Department of Defense said on Tuesday, announcing the assistance package.
The package comprises $2.1 billion from the United States' Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding, which allows American President Joe Biden's administration to buy weapons from industry rather than from US weapons stocks.
The USAI package included additional munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), which the US and allies have given to Kiev, precision aerial munitions, Soviet-era GRAD rockets, anti-tank rockets, armored bridging systems used in assaults, and 105 fuel trailers, along with funding for training and maintenance.
The remaining $500 million hails from Presidential Drawdown Authority funds, which allows the president to draw on current US stocks.
That segment of the package included half a dozen types of munitions, including munitions for Patriot air defense systems, tank munitions, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
Including the assistance, the US has so far pledged more than $35.2 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine since last February, when Russia began a special military operation in the ex-Soviet republic.
Russia launched the operation, saying it was aimed at defending the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev.
The Russian Embassy in Washington reacted to the Tuesday announcement by denouncing the United States for wanting to drag out the conflict as long as possible, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
"The decision to supply weapons to Kiev is a step towards escalating the Ukrainian crisis and increasing the number of civilian casualties," the agency cited an Embassy statement as saying.
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