US to send $550 million of new weapons to Ukraine; German MLRS MARS II arrive (Image Credit: Space war)
The United States announced Monday a new tranche of weapons for Ukraine’s forces fighting Russia, including ammunition for increasingly important rocket launchers and artillery guns.
The new $550 million package will “include more ammunition for the high mobility advanced rocket systems otherwise known as HIMARS, as well as ammunition” for artillery, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
The assistance includes 75,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition, a statement from the Pentagon said.
“To meet its evolving battlefield requirements, the United States will continue to work with its allies and partners to provide Ukraine with key capabilities,” the statement said.
This brings the total of military assistance committed to Ukraine since President Joe Biden took office to more than $8.8 billion, according to the Pentagon.
Previous weapons assistance from Washington to Kyiv has included counter-artillery radars, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Soviet-made helicopters, shells and light armored vehicles.
Kirby also hailed the first shipment of Ukrainian grain that left from the port of Odessa on Monday.
It was the first since the war began, part of a landmark deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to lift Moscow’s naval blockade in the Black Sea.
“We obviously welcome this important step and we hope to see more ships depart in the coming days to travel onward to world markets with agricultural products such as grain, wheat, sunflower oil and corn,” Kirby told reporters.
The five-month halt of deliveries from war-torn Ukraine — one of the world’s biggest grain exporters — has contributed to soaring food prices, hitting the world’s poorest nations especially hard.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24 and the war has left thousands dead, forced millions to flee their homes and raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
Ukraine says receives more Western rocket systems
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Aug 1, 2022 –
Ukraine said Monday it had received more precision rocket systems from the United States and Germany, adding to a growing arsenal of Western long-range artillery Kyiv says is changing dynamics on the battlefield.
Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweeted that four more HIMARS rocket launchers from Washington and the first in a batch of German MARS-II systems had arrived in Ukraine.
He thanked his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht, saying “our artillerymen salute our German partners!”
In response to Washington’s latest deliveries, Reznikov wrote that he was “grateful” to President Joe Biden and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin for “strengthening” the Ukrainian army.
“We have proven to be smart operators of this weapon. The sound of the #HIMARS volley has become a top hit of this summer at the front lines!” Reznikov wrote.
The German-provided MLRS MARS II is the third variety of sophisticated rocket-launcher system — after HIMARS and MLRS M270 — to be given to Ukraine to help it battle Russia’s invasion.
So far the United States has agreed to send some 20 HIMARS systems to Ukraine under a major programme to equip Kyiv’s forces.
Reznikov last month asked Washington to send more of the systems, saying Kyiv’s forces had used them to destroy around 30 Russian command stations and ammunition depots.
He said that at least 100 of these systems were needed for an effective counter-offensive against Moscow’s troops.
He also renewed a call for longer-range ammunition to cut off Russian units from their support.
Washington has hailed as “excellent” the use of HIMARS by the Ukrainian army, highlighting their impact on the battlefield.
But Biden’s administration has so far refused to send longer-range ammunition, fearing that Ukraine would strike targets inside Russian territory and potentially expand the war into a direct clash with the West.
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Russian air strike on Syria kills seven: monitor
Jisr Ash Shughur, Syria (AFP) July 22, 2022
A Russian air strike killed seven people, four of them children, in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region on Friday, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths “including four children who are siblings, two men and an unidentified person… as a result of Russian air strikes”, in the Jisr al-Shughur countryside of northern Syria.
Ayhman Mozan, 31, lost all four of his children in the attack that destroyed his home.
“My children are gone… the dearest people to my … read more
