Politico: US may announce new military aid package for Ukraine this week
The U.S. may announce a new military aid package for Ukraine later this week, Politico reported on May 20, citing two unnamed American officials.
Neither the value of the aid package nor the weapons it could include were disclosed.
After six months of delays, the U.S. Congress approved a $61 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine in April.
The Pentagon announced on April 26 that it was ready to move forward with sending $1 billion worth of weapons to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles. Another defense aid package for Kyiv worth $400 million was authorized on May 10.
The Pentagon said that it will likely take some time before new aid effects are felt on the battlefield.
In the meantime, Russia launched a new offensive with 30,000 troops on May 10, targeting Kharkiv Oblast, which is situated at the border with Russia in northeastern Ukraine.
Moscow's forces had managed to advance as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) in the region but had been halted by the first line of defense, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Over the winter months, Ukraine suffered a critical shortage of artillery shells, in large part due to delays in U.S. military aid. Russia has taken advantage of this, taking the city of Avdiivka in February.
"Every decision to which we, then later everyone together, comes to is late by around one year," Zelensky told Reuters on May 20, adding that Western partners have been deliberating key decisions on military aid for Ukraine for "too long."
Read also: Austin at Ramstein: US has ‘already delivered many of Ukraine’s top priority requirements’
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