The U.S. decided to ban Russian ships from entering the U.S. as it decided to provide additional support for a package of weapons worth 1 trillion won, including 155mm howitzers and tactical drones, to Ukraine, which is facing Russia’s offensive in Donbass. In response, Russia countered with a ban on entry of high-ranking US officials and businessmen, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Mehta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a speech at the White House on the 21st (local time) that “a variety of weapons are needed to effectively respond in the hillless and flat Donbass terrain.” “We will support a US$ billion (about 1 trillion won) arms package,” he said. This includes 72 155mm howitzers, 144,000 rounds of shells, and 121 ‘Phoenix Ghost’ tactical drones. President Biden announced on the 13th that he would provide $800 million worth of weapons, including howitzers, artillery shells, Mi-17 transport helicopters, M113 armored vehicles, anti-tank missile javelins, and anti-artillery radars, and this time he announced an additional support plan with the same amount.
“The United States, its allies and partners are advancing to the next stage of the war, with Russian forces redeploying their forces to capture eastern Ukraine,” Biden said. It is moving,” he explained. According to the dpa news agency, Germany has an M-84 tank owned by Slovenia, a NATO ally, through a ‘turn exchange system’ in which one ally supplies Soviet-made weapons to Ukraine instead of supplying another weapon to that country. plans to send to Ukraine.
President Biden also said he would block entry to US ports, just as Europe has banned Russian ships from entering. “Ships that carry the Russian flag, or are operated or owned for Russia, will not be allowed to dock or even be allowed access to US ports,” he said. Apart from military aid, the U.S. also provides $500 million to help stabilize Ukraine’s economy. In line with the Biden administration’s policy of accepting 100,000 Ukrainian refugees for humanitarian reasons, it has decided to operate an expedited entry program into the United States.
Russia banned 20 high-ranking US officials and businessmen from entering the country on the same day as the US brought up sanctions and additional aid to Ukraine. The list includes high-ranking officials in the US administration, including Vice President Harris, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Higgs and Defense Spokesperson John Kirby, as well as CEO Zuckerberg. Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “in response to the Biden administration’s continued sanctions against Russia”.
Russia is also reining in its offensive in the eastern Donbas (Donetsk/Luhansk) region while rejecting Ukraine’s request for an Easter truce. According to the American Institute for Warfare (ISW), Russian troops are focusing their firepower on Luvizne, Severodonetsk and Popasna in the Luhansk Oblast today. In particular, according to the authorities of the Luhansk Oblast, about half of Popasna is occupied by the Russian army, and street fighting is taking place all over the city. In Donetsk province, 42 villages were taken over by Russian forces in one day on the 20th, the Ukrainian government said.
Ukrainian forces continue to protest at the Azoustal Works in Mariupol, southern Mariupol, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a ‘blockade’. Captain Svyatoslav Palamar Azoustal Regiment told the Washington Post on the same day, “We are surrounded by Russian forces, but we are continuing to defend[the steelworks].”
Meanwhile, in the city of Manhu, near Mariupol, which has been under siege by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion, a mass burial site where the bodies of civilians are believed to be buried has been discovered. According to a satellite image released by Maxa Technology, a private commercial satellite company in the United States on that day, a burial site of 340m in total was built in 4 areas from the 23rd of last month to the 6th of the last month in Manhu, a town about 14km west of Mariupol. The burial site was built near the cemetery that existed in Manhu, and it was estimated that there were about 300 pits. Mariupol city authorities estimated that it could bury about 3,000 bodies, a larger scale than the mass burial site found in a subcar on the outskirts of Kiiu, where the ‘civilian massacre’ took place. Mariupol’s mayor Petro Andriuschenko said the Russian army had left the bodies of civilians at the burial site, saying it was “evidence of war crimes and an attempt to cover it up.”
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