The U.S. will send another $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The latest package will include a number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. The initial four that the U.S. sent have already gone into Ukraine and are in the hand of troops there. The package will also include ammunition and other supplies.
The new aid comes just a week after the U.S. announced it will send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as America and its allies send Ukraine the longer-range systems that they believe will allow forces to better fight back against Russia. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of an announcement.
The Russian military extended its grip Thursday on territory in eastern Ukraine, capturing two villages and vying for control of a key highway as it seeks to cut supply lines and encircle frontline Ukrainian forces, British and Ukrainian military officials said.
Ukrainian forces withdrew from some areas near the city of Lysychansk to avoid being surrounded as Russians sent in reinforcements and concentrated their firepower in the area, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. The city is located in Luhansk province, a major battlefield in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces took control of the villages of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka, and were trying to capture Syrotyne, a settlement outside the province’s urban administrative center, Sievierodonetsk.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press that the Russians were “burning everything out” in their offensive to encircle Ukraine’s fighters.
Russian forces have been bombarding the city of Sievierodonetskfor weeks with artillery and air raids, and fought the Ukrainian army house-to-house. The HIMARS gives Ukraine the ability to strike Russian forces and weapons from further away. The systems are mounted on trucks, which carry a container with six precision-guided rockets that can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
It took about three weeks to train Ukrainian troops on the first four HIMARS, before they were moved to the fight.
The aid is part of the $40 billion in security and economic assistance passed last month by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Overall, since the war began in late February, the U.S. has committed more than $6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including this latest package. The latest $450 million will be from drawdown authority, which means the Defense Department will take weapons and equipment from it’s own stock and ship them to Ukraine.
