WASHINGTON: U.S. President Joe Biden has said that the United States is providing Ukraine with a $700 million package of “more advanced rocket systems and munitions” as the Russian invasion enters its fourth month.
White House officials say Ukraine has vowed not to fire those rockets into Russian territory.
“This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances,” Biden said in a statement.
“We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.” Biden used the acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.
Administration officials said this new weapons package is “tailored to the needs” of the current phase of conflict, which is unfolding in Ukraine’s east.
“As the fight continues to change, the Ukrainians come to us with their priorities,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said.
“We make our own assessments. We are always measuring things against what the Ukrainians need, our assessment of the battlefield, but also things like the impact that it has on our own armed forces, especially when we’re drawing things out of our own stockpiles.”
He said the United States is sending four of the new rocket systems, and that it will take about three weeks to train Ukrainian forces to use them.
He declined to say where that training would take place but said the systems are on the European continent.
“What the HIMARS will allow them to do is to get greater standoff” range against targets more than 70 kilometers away, he said.
“So right now, the howitzers we provided them have about a 30-kilometer range, the HIMARS have more than twice that, which will allow them, even with fewer systems, greater standoff. And the other thing that distinguishes this is an extraordinary amount of precision.”
(VOA)
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