প্রকাশ: 14/04/2022
US President Joe
Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine on
Wednesday, expanding the scope of the systems provided to include heavy
artillery ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine.
The package, which brings the total military aid since
Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5 billion, includes
artillery systems, artillery rounds, armored personnel carriers and unmanned
coastal defense boats, Biden said in a statement after a phone call with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Biden said he had also approved the transfer of additional
helicopters, saying equipment provided to Ukraine "has been critical"
as it confronts the invasion.
"We cannot rest now. As I assured President Zelenskyy,
the American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainian people in
their fight for freedom," Biden said in a written statement.
The new package includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been
earmarked for Afghanistan before the US-backed government collapsed last year.
It also includes 18 155mm howitzers, along with 40,000 artillery rounds,
counter-artillery radars, 200 armored personnel carriers and 300 additional
"Switchblade" drones.
This was the first time howitzers have been provided to
Ukraine by the United States.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said some of the systems, like
the howitzers and radars, will require additional training for Ukrainian forces
not accustomed to using American military equipment.
"We're aware of the clock and we know time is not our
friend," Kirby said when asked about the speed of deliveries.
'BIGGER, MORE POWERFUL WEAPONS'
The new aid - first reported by Reuters on Tuesday - will be
funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president
can authorize the transfer of articles and services from US stocks without
congressional approval in response to an emergency.
John Spencer, a retired US Army major and expert on urban
warfare at the Madison Policy Forum, said he was excited to see that the United
States was sending artillery and artillery rounds.
"You need these bigger, more powerful weapons ... to
match what Russia is bringing to try to take eastern Ukraine," Spencer
said.
As news of the latest security assistance came out,
executives from the top US weapons makers met with Pentagon officials to
discuss the industrial challenges in the event of a protracted Ukraine
conflict.
These included executives from BAE Systems Plc, General
Dynamics Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp, Huntington Ingalls Industries, L3Harris
Technologies, Boeing Co, Raytheon Technologies Corp and Northrop Grumman
Corp.
In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said the
discussion "focused primarily on accelerating production and building more
capacity across the industrial base for weapons and equipment that can be
exported rapidly, deployed with minimal training, and prove effective in the
battlefield."
Zelenskiy has been pleading with US and European leaders to
provide heavier arms and equipment. Thousands have been killed and millions
displaced in the seven-week-long invasion.
Russia has been unable to achieve most of its military goals
as Ukrainians have put up a fiercer-than-expected resistance.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special
operation" to destroy Ukraine's military capabilities and capture what it
views as dangerous nationalists, but Ukraine and the West say Russia began an
unprovoked war of aggression.
On Wednesday, Russia said it had taken control of the southeastern
Ukrainian port of Mariupol and that more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had
surrendered.
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