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The White House is preparing to announce yet another military aid package for Ukraine as the military continues to gain ground in its effort to reclaim territory from Russia to the northeast and south.
The package, the 21st tranche of security assistance, will come “very, very soon,” White House coordinator for strategic communications for national security, John Kirby, said Thursday.
While the Pentagon hasn’t released any details yet, he indicated the package would include more long-range artillery and missile systems that have enabled Ukraine to attack Russia behind its own lines, with devastating results.
“I think you’ll see that very, very soon,” Kirby told CNN on Thursday.
“I think you’ll see it’s very consistent with the kind of capabilities we’ve provided to Ukraine in the past and recent, as they’ve fought in the Donbas and in the south. Systems, such as the advanced missile systems, howitzers in artillery systems that allow them to determine a certain range and a certain distance, so that they can actually influence the Russians behind their own defense lines. And I think you’ll see the package coming out soon will be in line with those same capabilities,” he said.
The US is preparing to announce its latest security package for Ukraine “very, very soon,” the White House said. It is expected to feature long frenzy weapons such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which Ukraine has successfully used
While the Pentagon is not yet sharing the size of the package, the latest package came in at nearly $3 billion, for a total of $13.5 billion since 2021.
Kirby spoke on a day when Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan.
The two last met shortly before Putin launched his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
The US has urged China not to break US and international sanctions against Russia, and Kirby, who sits on the National Security Council, said China had done nothing “openly” to support Russia.
“We have not seen the Chinese openly doing anything to support Mr Putin’s efforts in Ukraine,” Kirby said.
Russia has turned to North Korea and Iran for ammunition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the unoccupied city of Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.
Ukraine has called for more weapons to continue to retake its territory
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China praised for its ‘balanced’ approach. He met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday.
China and Russia have come closer in recent years
“They have clearly chosen not to condemn that war in Ukraine. But we have not seen, more importantly, we have not seen them violate sanctions or otherwise provide direct material aid to Mr Putin.”
‘Mr. Putin is under a lot of pressure and stress in Ukraine. His army is not doing well, and I think it certainly behooves the Kremlin to align itself with Beijing on what is going on there. But it remains to be seen how much President Xi will commit to actually doing something that will be material,” he said.
Speaking of China, Kirby said: ‘They have not weighed in on violating sanctions and they have not had to support Mr Putin materially again’, although he said it was not the time for anyone to ‘stand on the sidelines’ .’
Xi left China for the first time since the pandemic struck to meet Putin in Samarkand for a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
Putin praised China, which has refused to condemn the war, not even calling it a cross-border invasion.
“We value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the crisis in Ukraine,” Putin said.
He also supported China in its position on Taiwan. China undertook a series of military exercises and gestures that the US called provocative after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan this summer.
“We intend to stick to the ‘One China’ principle,” Putin said. “We condemn provocations by the United States and its satellites in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
“China is ready to join forces with Russia to assume the role of superpowers and take a leading role in injecting stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social unrest,” Xi told his counterpart.