As Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted, the next package of military assistance to Ukraine for $675 million will "include additional weapons, ammunition and equipment from the reserves of the US Department of Defense"WASHINGTON, September 8.
/tass/. The US administration will provide $2.2 billion to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors in the form of long-term investments under the US foreign military financing program. This is stated in a written statement issued on Thursday by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had previously arrived on an unannounced visit to Kiev.
The statement notes that he informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the provision of another $675 million package of military assistance to Kiev, which "includes additional weapons, ammunition and equipment from the reserves of the US Department of Defense." "In addition, today we are also notifying Congress of our intention to allocate another $2.2 billion in long-term investments under the foreign military financing program to strengthen the security of Ukraine and its 18 neighbors, including many of our NATO allies, as well as other regional security partners potentially at risk of future Russian aggression," - claimed the chief of American diplomacy.
According to the head of the State Department, as a result, the total amount of American military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Joe Biden's presidency is about $ 15.2 billion. As the Secretary of State recalled, "Biden made it clear that [the US] will support the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes." "I repeated this message to President Zelensky and his team today in Kiev, which remains and will remain the capital of a sovereign, independent Ukraine," Blinken said.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in connection with the request of the leaders of the republics of Donbass for help. He stressed that Moscow's plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, and the goals are demilitarization and denazification of the country. The West, in response to Russia's decision, began gradually imposing numerous and large-scale sanctions against it. Along with this, Western states have begun to supply weapons and military equipment to Kiev for amounts estimated at this stage in the tens of billions of dollars. A number of Western politicians have admitted that it is, in fact, an economic war against Russia. As Putin stated on March 16, the Western sanctions policy towards Moscow has all the signs of aggression. He pointed out that the policy of containing Russia is a long-term strategy of the West.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Russian officials have repeatedly drawn attention to the danger of the spread of weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine in other regions. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov warned that the militarization of Ukraine by the West directly threatens European and global security.
