US President Joe Biden introduced greater than $8 billion in navy help for Ukraine on Thursday to assist Kyiv “win this conflict” in opposition to Russian invaders, utilizing a go to by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to make a significant dedication.
The help consists of the primary cargo of a precision-guided glide bomb referred to as the Joint Standoff Weapon, with a variety of as much as 81 miles. The medium-range missile provides Ukraine a significant improve to the weapons it’s utilizing to strike Russian forces, permitting the Ukrainians to do it at safer distances.
The bomb, able to placing targets with excessive accuracy, is to be dropped from fighter jets. Biden won’t announce that Washington would let Ukraine use US missiles to hit targets deeper in Russia, a US official stated.
Supporting Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022, has been a US high precedence, Biden stated in an announcement.
“That’s the reason, right now, I’m saying a surge in safety help for Ukraine and a sequence of further actions to assist Ukraine win this conflict,” stated Biden, who leaves workplace in January.
The majority of the brand new help, $5.5 billion, is to be allotted earlier than Monday’s finish of the US fiscal yr, when the funding authority is about to run out. One other $2.4 billion is beneath the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative, which permits the administration to purchase weapons for Ukraine from corporations moderately than pull them from US shares.
This can present Ukraine with further air protection, unmanned aerial programs and air-to-ground munitions, in addition to strengthen Ukraine’s protection industrial base and help its upkeep and sustainment necessities, Biden stated.
Below his plan, the president stated, the Protection Division will refurbish and supply Ukraine with a further Patriot air protection battery and extra Patriot missiles.
Biden ordered the Pentagon to increase coaching for Ukrainian F-16 pilots, together with by supporting the coaching of a further 18 pilots subsequent yr.
Zelenskiy thanked Biden and the U.S. Congress for the brand new navy help bundle, saying Ukraine would use it “in essentially the most environment friendly and clear method.”
“I’m grateful to the US for offering the gadgets which can be most important to defending our individuals,” Zelenskiy stated on X, mentioning the Patriot battery, drones and long-range missiles. (Reuters)
