In a New York Times opinion piece, Biden said the US goal is to “see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself from further aggression.”
He said the new arms shipment “would allow them to hit key targets on the Ukrainian battlefield more accurately.”
Officials said the systems the U.S. is sending to Ukraine will be equipped with ammunition that will allow Ukraine to launch rockets at about 49 miles. This is much lower than the maximum range of systems, but much larger than everything that has been sent to Ukraine so far.
The new security package, which will be officially announced on Wednesday, will also include air surveillance radars, additional anti-tank javelin weapons, anti-armor weapons, artillery rounds, helicopters, tactical vehicles and spare parts to help Ukrainians continue to maintain the team. , officials said.
However, Biden tried to explain clearly what the US goals were in Ukraine and was careful to keep in mind that the US is not looking to get directly involved with Russia.
“We are not looking for a war between NATO and Russia. As much as he disagrees with Mr Putin and considers his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to provoke his expulsion from Moscow,” he said. Biden, about two months. after declaring in Warsaw, Poland, that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”
New security assistance comes when Russia has hit Ukraine in the east, where the country is outnumbered and outnumbered, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on world leaders for more weapons and equipment.
CNN previously reported that U.S. officials have been debating for weeks whether to send advanced rocket systems to Ukraine, because they can strike far beyond any weapon they already have. The long range of weapons, technically capable of attacking Russian territory, raised concerns that Russia might view the shipments as provocative.
“As long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly involved in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces,” Biden wrote in the editorial. “We are not encouraging or allowing Ukraine to go beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
Last Friday, a prominent Russian TV presenter warned that sending long-range rocket systems to Ukraine “would cross a red line” that “would provoke a very harsh response from Russia.” But the Biden administration made it clear that it would not send ammunition for the system of high-mobility artillery rocket systems that could deeply attack Russian sovereign territory.
“I think that where the United States is, is to offer all the help we can to the Ukrainians without escalating the situation to the point where the war is over or, frankly, going in a terrible direction,” she said earlier. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has accepted some risk for its own preparation with the continued shipment of weapons from the Department of Defense’s inventory to Ukraine, Wormuth said, but not a risk the Pentagon considers too high.
“We are really inclined to try to offer everything that political leaders consider essential to reach the Ukrainians. And we have taken some risk for our own preparation, not an unacceptable level of risk at all, but I think we will continue to do so. do it, ”he said as he spoke at an Atlantic Council event on the role of the Army in the National Defense Strategy.
The president said that US officials “currently see no indication that Russia intends to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, although Russia’s occasional rhetoric to shake the nuclear sword is in itself dangerous and extremely irresponsible. “.
“Let me be clear: any use of nuclear weapons in this conflict on any scale would be completely unacceptable to us and to the rest of the world and would have serious consequences,” Biden wrote.
This story was updated with additional information on Tuesday.