Huge US military aid to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday approved massive military aid to Ukraine, including armored vehicles, artillery and helicopters, heavier equipment than Washington previously provided Kiev.
The US President announced, in a phone call Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, that he had released a new batch of $800 million in aid, according to a White House press release.
He added that the new US arms deliveries would include some "very effective equipment that we provided before" to Ukraine as well as "new capabilities" including "artillery systems" and "armored personnel carriers".
And US Defense Department (Pentagon) spokesman John Kirby published a list of the equipment, explaining that it is from the US military stockpile, all of which are available immediately and will be delivered "as soon as possible."
This equipment includes 18 artillery "M777 howitzers", the latest generation of artillery pieces used by the US Army in Afghanistan until recently, with forty 155mm shells, ten anti-artillery radars of the "AN/TPQ36" type, and "Santinel" anti-aircraft radars. (AN/MHQ64).
This new batch also includes 300 "Switchblade" unmanned aerial vehicles, 500 "Javelin" missiles and "thousands of other anti-tank systems", as well as two hundred M113 armored personnel carriers and 100 lightly armored Humvees. According to Kirby.
Biden also agreed to provide Kyiv with an additional number of helicopters.
And it concerns 11 Soviet-made Mi-17 helicopters, which were intended for the Afghan army before it surrendered to the advance of Taliban fighters.
And American media confirmed that these helicopters were removed from the list after their inclusion.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki was keen to clarify that this reluctance is due to the Ukrainian side, not to Washington.
"For a while they weren't very clear about their desire to have more helicopters," she told reporters.
"Today they said they wanted to take it," she added.
Kirby said it is the first time that the Biden administration has provided Ukraine with artillery, explaining that the battle of Donbass will be different from the battle of Kyiv because Russian forces are less dispersed than they were at the beginning of the invasion and the terrain in the east of the country is different.
"This part of Ukraine is a bit like Kansas. It's a little more flat" than the north and "a little more open," he explained, adding that "it's the kind of place where the Russians are expected to use tanks and heavy artillery to hit their targets before sending in soldiers."
The United States has so far been reluctant to deliver heavy equipment ordered by the Ukrainians, arguing that it would only increase tension between Washington and Moscow and risk seeing the Americans as a party to the war.
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