U.S. President Joe Biden returns to the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2022. REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst
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WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a new $ 1 billion US arms deal for Ukraine that includes anti-missile rocket systems, artillery rockets, howitzers and ammunition.
In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Biden said he had told the assaulted leader about the new weapons.
“The United States is providing $ 1 billion more in security assistance to Ukraine, including additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for artillery and advanced rocket systems,” Biden said in a statement later. of the 41-minute call.
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The president also announced an additional $ 225 million in humanitarian assistance to help people in Ukraine, including drinking water supplies, basic medical supplies and health care, food, shelter and cash for families to buy essentials. .
The latest weapons packages for Ukraine include 18 shells, 36,000 rounds of ammunition for them, two Harpoon coastal defense systems, artillery rockets, secure radios, thousands of night vision devices and training funding. said the Pentagon.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to thank him for “crucial military assistance” from the United States.
“I emphasized that we urgently need more heavy weapons delivered more regularly,” he said on Twitter.
The aid packages, which arrive when U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with allies in Brussels, were divided into two categories: transfer of defense items in excess of US stocks. American and other weapons funded by the Security Assistance Initiative of Ukraine (USAI), an independent entity. program authorized by Congress.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, on Wednesday accused Western countries of “fighting a power war with Russia,” and told reporters: “I would like to tell Western countries that supply weapons to Ukraine: the blood of civilians is in your hands. “
Ukraine is pressuring the United States and other Western nations for the rapid delivery of weapons in the face of rising pressure from Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region.
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told reporters at an event organized by the German Marshall Fund: “We need all these weapons to be concentrated in a moment to defeat the Russians, not just keep coming every two or three weeks.”
In May, the Biden administration announced a plan to give Ukraine M142 high-mobility artillery rocket systems after receiving assurances from Kyiv that it would not use them to hit targets within Russian territory. Biden imposed the condition to try to prevent the escalation of the Ukrainian war. Read more
The rocket artillery in this aid package would have the same rank as previous U.S. rocket shipments and is funded through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorize the transfer of items and services from of U.S. stockpiles without congressional approval in response to an emergency, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
For the first time, the United States is sending Harpoon launchers ashore. In May, Reuters reported that the U.S. was working on possible solutions that included removing a launcher from a U.S. ship to help provide Harpoon missile launch capability in Ukraine. Read more
Harpoons manufactured by Boeing Co. (BA.N) cost about $ 1.5 million per missile, according to industry experts and executives.
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Reports by Mike Stone, Patricia Zengerle, Humeyra Pamuk and Steve Holland in Washington, Additional Reports by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Idrees Ali in Brussels and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; edited by Jonathan Oatis and Nick Zieminski
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