1660118360 War in Ukraine Washington Increases Military Aid No Longer Hesitating

War in Ukraine: Washington Increases Military Aid, No Longer Hesitating to Provide Cutting Edge Technology

The M142 Himars rocket launcher, a dozen of which were sent to Ukraine by the Americans, during a training exercise at Fort Stewart, Georgia, the United States, June 13, 2015. The M142 Himars rocket launcher, a dozen of which were sent to Ukraine by the Americans, during a training exercise at Fort Stewart, Georgia, U.S., June 13, 2015. COREY DICKSTEIN/AP

This is the eighteenth “package” of military aid Washington has given to Kyiv since the Russian offensive in Ukraine began. On Monday, August 8, the United States announced it would send an additional $1 billion in “weapons, ammunition and equipment” to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, bringing total American military aid to $9.8 billion since February 24 and the launch of Vladimir Putin’s “special operation”. For comparison, Ukraine’s total defense budget in 2021 was $5.9 billion.

“President [des Etats-Unis Joe] Biden has made it clear: We will support the people of Ukraine defending their country against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released Monday, assuring that “more than fifty countries ” deliver military equipment to Ukraine today. “Every dollar of this aid is another step towards defeating the attacker,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a message broadcast on Monday on twitter.

Read the decoding: Article reserved for our subscribers Military aid to Ukraine: the contrasting effort of westerners

According to a list released by the Pentagon, this new envelope mainly contains ammunition that is used intensively by the belligerents. A batch of unspecified volume is intended in particular to supply the sixteen M142 Himars multiple rocket launchers previously supplied by Washington. Capable of targeting targets more than 80 kilometers away with an accuracy of a few meters, these systems wreak havoc among Russian ammunition or fuel depots behind the front lines. About 110 Russian army bases were thus destroyed in July, mainly in the Donbass and Kherson region, according to a census compiled from images shared on social networks.

In addition to the projectiles allocated to the Himars, the United States announced the delivery of 75,000 new 155mm shells, which will complement previous American deliveries of 486,000 projectiles of the same caliber. Intended primarily for the 126 M777 guns Washington has supplied since the conflict began, these shells are considered indispensable in the artillery warfare in which the Russians and Ukrainians have been engaged for months. Washington also promised twenty 120mm mortars (accompanied by 20,000 shells) and 1,000 Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles (6,500 had previously been delivered).

“Much better antenna coverage”

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