WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has approved a new military aid package for Ukraine that totals up to $300 million and includes additional ammunition for drones and a range of other weapons. It comes as Russia continues to strike the Ukrainian capital and unmanned planes have targeted Moscow.
US officials said there was no evidence that US-made drones or ammunition were used in the Moscow strikes, which the Kremlin blamed on Ukraine but which Kyiv did not acknowledge. The Biden administration said it made it clear to Ukraine that US-made weapons should not be used for attacks inside Russian territory.
“We don’t tell them where to hit. We don’t tell them where not to hit. … At the end of the day, President Zelenskyy and his military commanders decide what they are going to do from a military point of view,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby But he added that the United States has been “very clear with the Ukrainians privately, we have certainly been clear publicly, that we do not support attacks inside Russia.”
He said Zelenskyy had given the United States assurances that the Ukrainians would respect those concerns.
The new aid program provides ammunition to bolster Ukraine’s air defense capabilities to repel Russian air assaults on kyiv. It provides ammunition for Patriot missile batteries and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as Avenger and Stinger air defense systems, mine clearance equipment, anti-armour shells, rockets unguided Zuni aircraft, night vision goggles and approximately 30 million shells. of small arms ammunition and an undisclosed amount of other artillery shells.
Moscow was the target of a rare drone attack on Tuesday that caused minor damage to residential buildings. Russian officials say the West, which throughout the bitter war has sought to prevent the conflict from spreading beyond Ukraine, has failed to sufficiently condemn the attack on Russian soil.
Asked about Moscow’s criticism that the West quietly supports attacks inside Russian territory, Kirby scoffed that Russians “won’t believe anything I have to say” about it.
He said the United States had made it clear that it would not change its policy of not allowing or encouraging strikes inside Russia, but added: “I don’t think we’re going to take on us as a burden to communicate this privately to the Russians.”
Ukrainian officials welcomed Tuesday’s drone attack but avoided claiming responsibility, a response similar to what they said after previous attacks on Russian territory.
US officials did not provide details of the drone munitions in the new aid program or specify which unmanned aircraft would use them. The Ministry of Defense has given Ukraine a variety of unmanned aircraft over the past year, both for surveillance and attack, including at least two versions of the Switchblade, a so-called kamikaze drone that can hover in the air and then explode into a target.
Including the latest aid, the United States has committed more than $37.6 billion in arms and other equipment to Ukraine since the attack on Russia on February 24, 2022. This latest package will be carried out under the presidential withdrawal authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons from its own stockpiles and quickly ship them to Ukraine, officials said.