War in Ukraine | Washington announces new aid of 820 million

(Washington) The United States announced Friday that it will provide Ukraine with $820 million in new military aid, including new surface-to-air missile systems and counter-artillery radars to respond to the strong Russia’s reliance on long-range strikes in the war.

In recent days, Russia has launched dozens of missiles across Ukraine and pinned down Ukrainian forces with continuous fire for sometimes hours at a time.

Ukrainian leaders have publicly called on Western allies to quickly send more munitions and advanced systems that will help close the equipment and manpower gap. They argue that they need help from Western allies to fend off larger, heavily equipped Russian forces.

In total, the United States has pledged more than $8.8 billion in arms and military training to Ukraine. About 7 billion of this aid has been announced since the Russian invasion in February.

“We are going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” President Joe Biden told a press conference at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Madrid this week. . He argued that Russia had already suffered a blow to its international reputation and significant damage to its economy from Western sanctions imposed since the invasion.

The United States is giving Ukrainians “the ability” so “they can continue to resist Russian aggression,” Biden argued. And so I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it’s not going to end with Russia defeating Ukraine in Ukraine. »

As part of this new set of measures, the United States will purchase two systems known as NASAMS, an anti-aircraft system developed by Norway and used to protect the airspace around the White House and the Capitol in Washington. . The Pentagon will also supply the Ukrainians with up to 150,000 rounds of 155 millimeter artillery.

The Pentagon will also provide additional munitions for the medium-range rocket systems it provided to Ukraine in June, known as High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). The ammunition will come from the Department of Defense’s own inventory under what’s called retirement authority. This is the 14^e batch of weapons and military equipment transferred to Ukraine from Department of Defense inventories since August 2021.

According to Western officials and analysts, the war has turned into a stalemate in which both sides are heavily reliant on artillery. While Russia has not achieved its initial goal of overthrowing the Ukrainian government, it is making slow progress in conquering Ukraine’s eastern region, the Donbass.