The US Department of Defense on Tuesday announced a further $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including munitions for air defenses and armored vehicles, according to a statement.
The new delivery should notably include around fifty Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, ammunition for Patriot air defense systems and Himars artillery systems, as well as mine clearance equipment, details the Pentagon.
The announcement comes as Kiev is currently waging its counter-offensive against the Russian forces occupying its territory, on which they have erected numerous lines of defense, and while Moscow is reeling from the abortive rebellion this weekend of the boss of the group paramilitary Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine.
Denouncing Russian army shelling of its troops, Wagner’s fighters marched on Rostov, where they took control of an army headquarters, then continued on their way to Moscow, before turning back on Saturday, sowing confusion and doubt as to the credibility of the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, said earlier on Tuesday that he “did not have to withdraw combat units from the ‘special military operation’ zone,” Moscow’s term for its war in Russia. Ukraine, to redeploy them to Russia during the mutiny.
The tranche of US military aid announced on Tuesday aims to “support Ukraine’s counter-offensive operations, strengthen its air defenses to help Ukraine protect its people […] and other equipment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s war of aggression,” the ministry said in its statement.
Ukraine has been leading a counter-offensive since the beginning of June aimed at reconquering the territories occupied by Moscow in the east and south, claiming at this stage the resumption of around ten localities.