WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems that can deliver precision strikes to Russian long-range targets as part of a $ 700 million weapons package. to be presented on Wednesday.
The United States is providing Ukraine with high-mobility artillery missile systems that can hit accurate targets within 80 km (50 miles) after Ukraine gave “guarantees” that it would not use missiles to strike Russia, senior officials said. administration.
In a New York Times report Tuesday, Biden said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would end through diplomacy, but the United States must provide significant weapons and ammunition to give Ukraine the most influence at the negotiating table.
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“That is why I have decided to provide Ukrainians with more modern missile systems and ammunition that will allow them to hit more precisely key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Biden wrote.
The package also includes ammunition, firefighting radars, a number of air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles, and anti-armed weapons, officials said.
Ukrainian authorities are asking the Allies for longer-range missile systems that can launch a jet of missiles hundreds of miles away, hoping to reverse the course of the three-month war. Read more
On Tuesday, Biden told reporters that “we will not send missile systems to Ukraine that strike Russia.”
He did not rule out the provision of a specific weapon system, but instead seems to set conditions for how they can be used. Biden wants to help Ukraine defend itself, but opposes the provision of weapons that Ukraine can use to attack Russia.
Thousands were killed in Ukraine and millions more were displaced after the February 24 Russian invasion, which Moscow called a “special military operation” to “denationalize” its neighbor. Ukraine and its Western allies call this an unfounded pretext for a war of conquest. Read more
The West is increasingly inclined to give Ukraine longer-range weapons, including M777 howitzers, as its forces fight Russians more successfully than intelligence officials have predicted. Read more
But US intelligence has also warned of growing risks, especially given the discrepancy between Russian President Vladimir Putin’s apparent ambitions and the performance of his military.
Ukraine has begun receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov said on Saturday. Read more
(This story has been corrected to add the missing word “includes” in the fifth paragraph)
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Report by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Jarrett Renshaw; edited by Grant McCool and Lincoln Fest.
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