The Pentagon said the United States will send a new flow of weapons and equipment that Ukraine will need to launch its counterattack against Russian forces in the south of the country.
The new equipment includes missiles for HIMARS launchers that have been credited with destroying Russian command posts and ammunition depots, and other artillery weapons designed to disrupt supply lines.
newspaper said The New York Times Taken together, the new shipment of up to $775 million in weapons and supplies from the Pentagon’s stockpile is a strategic arsenal to “activate the immediate artillery battle” in Ukraine, while also helping to build an arsenal to support a counterattack near Kherson, in the south of the country, which Not fully achieved yet.
The latest shipment includes 40 armored vehicles equipped with giant rollers to clear minefields prior to any ground operation in Ukraine, as well as 50 troop-carrying armored Humvees, 1,500 TOW guided missiles and 1,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles.
The Pentagon will also send more high-speed missiles, or HARMs – air-to-ground weapons designed to search for and destroy Russian air defense radars.
Military technicians figured out how to integrate the American missile onto Soviet-designed MiG fighter jets to help defeat one of the biggest threats to Ukraine’s air force.
The package also includes HIMARS missiles, 16 105mm howitzers and 36,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as 15 ScanEagle drones to help identify Russian targets and transmit location information to the artillery.
Currently, the United States has limited the number of satellite-guided missile launchers to Ukraine at 16, fearing that providing more would shrink the Pentagon’s stockpile of satellite-guided missiles and ultimately jeopardize US combat readiness.
Pentagon officials have confirmed in recent days that their resupply of ammunition for various artillery systems has now reached a regular, sustainable level that Ukrainian commanders can rely on as they plan operations.
The shipment, the Biden administration’s 19th overall to Ukraine, comes as fighting has largely stopped in Kherson in the south, and the Donbass region, in the east.
US officials said Russia’s offensive to seize Donetsk province, part of Donbass, was halted partly because Moscow diverted several thousand troops to the south to counter the expected Ukrainian offensive there and partly because of the impact of the HIMARS strikes.
“At the moment, I would say that you are seeing a complete lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield,” the newspaper quoted a senior Pentagon official, who asked not to be named.
But when pressed by journalists, the official said the Ukrainians lacked sufficient forces and combat power to dislodge the Russians from their defensive positions.
“We haven’t seen significant territorial restitution, but we see significant weakness in Russian positions in a variety of locations,” the official said.
Escalation warning
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of a possible escalation by Russia ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day, as Moscow opened an investigation into a car explosion that killed the daughter of an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have to be aware of the fact that this week Russia may try to do something particularly bad,” Zelensky said in his daily video address late Saturday. But Russia has consistently done the same thing every week for the past six months.”
Zelensky did not give details in his speech about what he believed Moscow was planning, but tensions are rising amid alleged Ukrainian attacks on military infrastructure in Russia-controlled Crimea and on Russian territory close to the border with Ukraine, according to the newspaper. The Wall Street Journal.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, part of which is still under Russian occupation, Governor Ole Senhopov announced a series of restrictions on movement this week, including a 36-hour curfew starting on the eve of Independence Day on Tuesday until the early morning of Thursday.
As the war approaches six months, Russia is increasingly feeling the ramifications, according to the Wall Street Journal, and strikes on key military installations in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, have brought the war close to home for many Russian citizens. .
It has also forced Russian officials in Crimea to increase security, which could lead to the withdrawal of some forces away from the front lines in Ukraine.
While Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks, Ukrainian officials have privately confirmed that Kyiv was behind the incidents, according to the newspaper, and footage posted on social media on Sunday night showed what appeared to be Russian air defenses firing from the peninsula, accompanied by comments from local residents who expressed Amazed by the scene.
On Saturday evening, a car carrying Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian far-right ideologue, Alexander Dugin, exploded outside Moscow, killing her, on the spot.
Dugin had for years called on Russia to expand its territory and re-establish its empire by taking over Ukraine.
And in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists were seizing government buildings in eastern Ukraine and Moscow sparked an armed conflict there, Dugin called for a full-scale war against Kyiv.
The Russian Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it described as a pre-planned strike in which the Toyota Land Cruiser Dogina was driving exploded around 9 pm local time as a possible result of a bomb placed inside.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In the aftermath of the explosion, Dugin’s supporters, including the Tsargrad TV channel, on which he frequently appeared as a guest, called for revenge against Ukraine.
Kyiv denied responsibility for this. “Ukraine has nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion because we are not a criminal state like Russia,” Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said in a television interview.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that if Ukraine organized the attack, Kyiv should be accused of state terrorism.