US Commits $2 Billion in Army Help to Ukraine for Weapons, Blinken Says

The USA is offering army help to Ukraine for $2 billion in order that the nation can get weapons “as we speak”, Blinken mentioned at a press convention in Kyiv on Wednesday. That is a part of the $61 billion help bundle that was permitted in the USA a number of weeks in the past.

The cash will go each to the army and investments within the infrastructure of Ukraine, in addition to to make sure that Ukraine can purchase army gear from different nations.

Blinken made the announcement at a press convention with Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday afternoon. Right here he mentioned that it’s Ukraine’s personal selection whether or not they need to assault Russia.

– We have now not inspired or facilitated assaults exterior of Ukraine, however in the long run Ukraine should make its personal selections about the way to conduct this conflict, mentioned e.

Video: You’ve got by no means seen Antony Blinken like this earlier than

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Blinken additionally promised extra air defenses, together with Patriot techniques, as Kuleba urgently requested.

In current months, Ukraine has been on the defensive resulting from a scarcity of weapons, ammunition and troopers. In the previous couple of days, Russia has captured a number of small cities close to town of Kharkiv within the northeast. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian army introduced that that they had withdrawn their forces from the entrance in a number of locations within the area. As not too long ago as Tuesday, a block of flats was hit by a Russian rocket within the million-strong metropolis of Kharkiv.

Blinken, who arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday, says that President Joe Biden might meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj within the coming weeks. On the press convention, he additionally expressed robust assist for a deliberate peace convention for Ukraine to be held in Switzerland in June.

On Tuesday night time, Blinken carried out with Ukrainian rock musicians at a bar in Kyiv, the place he sang and performed guitar to “Rockin’ within the Free World.” The present obtained a blended reception in Ukraine, the place some wrote on social media that it was “tone deaf” in a scenario the place hundreds of thousands of individuals should stay with the consequences of the brutal conflict.