RAMSTEIN AIR BASE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday with prime United States army leaders and greater than 50 associate nations in Germany to press for extra weapons assist as Washington introduced it might present one other $250 million in safety help to Kyiv.
US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin stated the assembly of the leaders was going down throughout a dynamic second in Ukraine‘s battle towards Russia, because it conducts its first offensive operations of the struggle whereas going through a big risk from Russian forces close to a key hub within the Donbas.
To this point the shock assault inside Russia’s Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian metropolis of Pokrovsk, which offers important rail and provide hyperlinks for the Ukrainian military. Dropping Pokrovsk may put extra Ukrainian cities in danger.
Whereas Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we all know Putin’s malice runs deep,” Austin cautioned in ready remarks to the media earlier than the Ukraine Protection Contact Group met. Moscow is urgent on, particularly round Pokrovsk, Austin stated.
Current lethal airstrikes by Russia have renewed Zelenskyy’s requires the US to additional loosen restrictions and acquire even better Western capabilities to strike deeper inside Russia. Nonetheless, the assembly Friday was anticipated to concentrate on resourcing extra air protection and artillery provides and shoring up positive factors on increasing Ukraine’s personal protection industrial base, to place it on extra stable footing as the ultimate days of Joe Biden’s US presidency wind down.
Zelenskyy stated he would proceed to press for the long-range strike functionality. “Sturdy long-range selections by companions are wanted to deliver the simply peace we search nearer,” Zelenskyy stated Friday on Telegram.
Western associate nations had been working with Ukraine to supply a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air protection techniques, Austin stated.
The US can also be targeted on resourcing quite a lot of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, together with the Joint Air-to-Floor Standoff Missile, which may give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile possibility, stated Invoice LaPlante, the Pentagon’s prime weapons purchaser, who spoke to reporters touring with Austin.
No selections on the munition have been made, LaPlante stated, noting that policymakers would nonetheless need to determine whether or not to offer Ukraine the longer-range functionality.
“I might simply put JASSM in that class, it is one thing that’s at all times being checked out,” LaPlante stated. “Something that is an air-to-ground weapon is at all times being checked out.”
For the previous two years, members of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group have met to useful resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air protection wants, starting from lots of of tens of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to a number of the West’s most refined air protection techniques, and now fighter jets. The ask this month was extra of the identical – however completely different in that it was in particular person, and adopted the same in-person go to Thursday in Kyiv by Biden’s Deputy Nationwide Safety Advisor Jon Finer as Zelenskyy shores up US assist earlier than the administration modifications.
Since 2022, the member nations collectively have supplied about $106 billion in safety help to Ukraine. The U.S. has supplied greater than $56 billion of that complete.
The German authorities stated Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to fulfill Zelenskyy in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.
US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin stated the assembly of the leaders was going down throughout a dynamic second in Ukraine‘s battle towards Russia, because it conducts its first offensive operations of the struggle whereas going through a big risk from Russian forces close to a key hub within the Donbas.
To this point the shock assault inside Russia’s Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian metropolis of Pokrovsk, which offers important rail and provide hyperlinks for the Ukrainian military. Dropping Pokrovsk may put extra Ukrainian cities in danger.
Whereas Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we all know Putin’s malice runs deep,” Austin cautioned in ready remarks to the media earlier than the Ukraine Protection Contact Group met. Moscow is urgent on, particularly round Pokrovsk, Austin stated.
Current lethal airstrikes by Russia have renewed Zelenskyy’s requires the US to additional loosen restrictions and acquire even better Western capabilities to strike deeper inside Russia. Nonetheless, the assembly Friday was anticipated to concentrate on resourcing extra air protection and artillery provides and shoring up positive factors on increasing Ukraine’s personal protection industrial base, to place it on extra stable footing as the ultimate days of Joe Biden’s US presidency wind down.
Zelenskyy stated he would proceed to press for the long-range strike functionality. “Sturdy long-range selections by companions are wanted to deliver the simply peace we search nearer,” Zelenskyy stated Friday on Telegram.
Western associate nations had been working with Ukraine to supply a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air protection techniques, Austin stated.
The US can also be targeted on resourcing quite a lot of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, together with the Joint Air-to-Floor Standoff Missile, which may give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile possibility, stated Invoice LaPlante, the Pentagon’s prime weapons purchaser, who spoke to reporters touring with Austin.
No selections on the munition have been made, LaPlante stated, noting that policymakers would nonetheless need to determine whether or not to offer Ukraine the longer-range functionality.
“I might simply put JASSM in that class, it is one thing that’s at all times being checked out,” LaPlante stated. “Something that is an air-to-ground weapon is at all times being checked out.”
For the previous two years, members of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group have met to useful resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air protection wants, starting from lots of of tens of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to a number of the West’s most refined air protection techniques, and now fighter jets. The ask this month was extra of the identical – however completely different in that it was in particular person, and adopted the same in-person go to Thursday in Kyiv by Biden’s Deputy Nationwide Safety Advisor Jon Finer as Zelenskyy shores up US assist earlier than the administration modifications.
Since 2022, the member nations collectively have supplied about $106 billion in safety help to Ukraine. The U.S. has supplied greater than $56 billion of that complete.
The German authorities stated Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to fulfill Zelenskyy in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.
