The United States accelerates the shipment of armored vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine

USA has accelerated the shipment of weapons to Ukraine in the face of intensifying Russian attacks in Donbas and now completes its deliveries in just 72 hours, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed on Tuesday.

The increase in speed occurs at a time USA perceived as decisive for the future of Ukraine and with which Russia seems to want to emulate the great land battles of the last century.

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Before the Senate Foreign Committee, Blinken He explained that the United States and its allies have been searching all over the world for military equipment that Ukrainians know how to use and that can be useful to them in dealing with Russia.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the sending of this aid has been accelerated and now The US government is capable of completing new arms shipments within 72 hours of receiving the go-ahead from US President Joe Biden.

When the military equipment that is sent only has American technology, the term can be as little as 24 hours, Far from the weeks it used to take before, Blinken said.

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Among other things, The US is sending Ukraine armored vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles of various typesincluding famous Javelinwhich have become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance for having destroyed many of the armored cars that Russia used at the beginning of the offensive.

The Russians are now using fewer armored cars and more long-range artilleryhence Ukraine The US and the US are now assessing the best weapons to deal with it.

NEW WEAPONS FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR

That change in conditions on the ground was the focus of their meeting in Kyiv on Sunday the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskythe US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and Blinken, who today offered the public new details about that meeting.

Blinken explained that Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov attended the meeting and together they assessed what kind of weapons the Ukrainian government now needs.

“The nature of the battle is changing and heading to the east and south of Ukraine. They (the Russians) are adapting and we are adapting. We spent a lot of time with President Zelensky and the defense minister going over what they thought they needed to fight effectively.”Blinken said.

Although Zelensky has in the past called for more support from the US, Blinken He assured that both parties are “in large part” in agreement on what the next steps in military assistance should be.

USA It is also intensifying collaboration with its allies to modernize the military equipment used until now by the Ukrainians and which, in some cases, dates back to the Soviet Union.

Specifically, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austinparticipated on Tuesday at the US base in Ramstein, Germany, together with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in a meeting with defense ministers from some 40 countries to discuss how to increase aid to Ukraine.

AN ADDITIONAL 713 MILLION IN AID

After their visit to kyiv, Austin and Blinken announced that the US and other NATO members will give an additional $713 million in military aid to Ukraine and 15 other countries in Europe.

Of those funds, some 320 million will go directly to Ukraine to help the armed forces modernize, the head of US diplomacy detailed on Tuesday.

These donations will be different from others that Washington has made since, this time, the United States will not send Ukraine weapons that it has in storage, but rather money will be given to the Zelensky government so that it can buy what it needs.

Parallel to the delivery of weapons, The United States has resumed this week its diplomatic activity in Ukraine with the return to the country of diplomats who had left due to the Russian invasion.

Those diplomats are returning to the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine and close to Poland, and the security conditions for reopening the embassy in kyiv are being studied, Blinken said.

A NEW AID PACKAGE AT CONGRESS

By last, Blinken confirmed that the Biden government will soon ask Congress for a new package for Ukraine, although the amount of the new aid is still unknown.

The last aid package for Ukraine passed by Congress was $13.6 billion, though that money has almost run out, Biden said last week.

Zelenskyfor his part, has said his country needs $7 billion a month to continue resistance to Russia and recover from the economic devastation of the war.

Since Biden entered the White House in January 2021, the United States has dedicated more than $4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including $3.4 billion since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.

Source: Elcomercio

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