Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the US will soon announce an additional $2.3 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, to include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defense systems.
The announcement came as Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with Austin at the Pentagon. And it marks a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had dropped more than 800 powerful glide bombs in Ukraine in the last week alone. And he urged national leaders to relax restrictions on the use of Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia. In particular, he said Ukraine needs the “necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are.”
Ukraine is expected to get "good news" in its quest for more air defence systems at a NATO summit in Washington next week, a senior US State Department official said on Tuesday.
"We hope we'll be able to get to the summit and make some new announcements on air defense," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"You've heard that the Ukrainians are keen to secure additional Patriots or similar systems. And I think we'll have some additional good news for them on that front."
Ukrainian officials have been urging their allies for months to supply more air defense systems to defend against frequent missile and drone attacks from Russian forces following Moscow's 2022 invasion.
