Biden to announce $375 million military aid package to Ukraine – media
20 May, 2023 Illustrative photo.
155mm artillery rounds. USA. Photo credits: US Department of Defense
United States President Joe Biden is set to announce a new military aid package to Ukraine. It comes after his meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at a G7 summit in Japan this weekend, Politico reports. The cost of this defense aid package will amount to £375 million.
According to the sources from a circle of American and Ukrainian government officials, it will include more artillery shells, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.
Military aid to Ukraine. January 2022. Photo credits: U.S.
Army
The American newspaper notes that this defense assistance will be extremely useful for the Ukrainian Defense Forces during the upcoming counteroffensive and heavy battles with the Russian invaders, which are expected this spring and summer. As previously reported, on Friday it became known that the United States was ready to allow its European allies to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.
F-16 fighters of the 162nd Air Force Wing of the U.S.
Air Force. Photo from the Air Wing`s social media page
Joe Biden told his G7 colleagues at a summit in Japan that the United States would support joint training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters. The training of Ukrainian pilots is expected to take place in Europe, however American personnel will also be involved.
It will take several months for the training to complete. However, as CNN journalists note, so far there has been no request to the White House from allies to transfer the aircraft to the Armed Forces, and State Department officials, who will be involved in the process of granting such permission, have not yet received respective instructions.
M1 Abrams tank. Photo credits: U.S.
Army
Earlier in May, the United States delivered 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Germany to train Ukrainian crews. The training program involves not only training crews to operate tanks, but also training personnel to maintain these combat vehicles.
Tanks M1 Abrams of the U.S. Army.
2020.
Photo credits: RCB photography
American tanks were delivered to the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany.