The new aid package includes weapons to be drawn from existing U.S. arsenals, including air defense interceptors for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and ammunition for HIMARS rocket systems.
ADVERTISINGHe Pentagon has announced that it will send 425 million dollars (392 million euros) additional in military aid to Ukraineas kyiv prepares to face the russian forcesto which More than 10,000 North Korean soldiers will join.
The new aid package, announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, includes weapons that will be removed from the American arsenals existing, including air defense interceptors for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rockets and 155 mm artillery and armored vehicles y antitank weapons.
The package of aid announced by the Pentagon brings the total to 60,400 million dollars (55,000 million euros) of the military aid that the US has provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded it in February 2022.
Cities in eastern Ukraine continue to suffer from Russian missile attacks, including one on Kharkiv with a 500 kilo glider bomb. That attack hit an apartment complex on Thursday, killing three people and injuring several more.
Russia is increasingly using more powerful gliding bombs to bomb Ukrainian positions along the 1,000-kilometer line of contact and attack cities tens of kilometers from the front line.
Ukraine also faces new uncertainty, as Waves of North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia have arrived near the border Ukrainian and are preparing to join the fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days.
I counterattack
For his part, the prime minister ofSlovakiaRobert Fico, if there is opposed to Western military support for Ukraineaccusing European countries of not being interested in a peaceful resolution of the war and stating that providing weapons to kyiv only prolongs the fighting.
“It was Western politicians who, on the contrary, did everything possible to ensure that no realistic peace agreement will be signed in April 2022shortly after the outbreak of the conflict, and Zelensky’s peace plan was forgotten because it was unrealistic“Fico declared in a video message recorded in Beijing.
Just one day after taking office in October last year, Fico suspended all military aid deliveries to Ukraine, stating that “The EU must go from being a weapons supplier to a peacemaker”. However, Slovakia’s prime minister said humanitarian aid deliveries to kyiv would continue.
The government’s decision encouraged the Slovaks to contribute the necessary money for the Ukrainian military operation. In April, a crowdfunding campaign to buy artillery shells raised one million euros less than 48 hours after its launch.
The “Baltic example”
However, in the Latvian capital Riga, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said the war in Ukraine “is about our freedom” and urged other European countries to follow the “Baltic example.” providing kyiv with the means to win the war.
“If you allow someone to change the borders by force and after that, you negotiate about it and they come, I don’t know what kind of example you would set,” he said, adding that supporting Ukraine militarily was “the only way.” This 2024, Estonia pledged more than 100 million euros in military aid to Ukrainey Latvia 112 million.
