US to allocate $1.1-billion military aid package to Ukraine
As the agency notes, Washington is awaiting the results of referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions on joining Russia
The US administration is preparing to announce another military aid package to Ukraine, worth $1.1 billion, in the coming days, Reuters reported citing unnamed US officials.
Washington will most likely allocate the funds to finance purchases rather than procure weapons and equipment from its own stocks. The package is expected to include HIMARS launcher systems, counter-drone systems, radars and spare parts.
The US administration is waiting for results of the referendums in the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR), and the regions of Zaporozhye and Kherson, about their accession to Russia. The US side has already declared that it would not recognize their outcomes.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, in response to a request from the Donbass republics, he made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. He underscored that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, instead planning to demilitarize and denazify the country.
In response, the West started introducing sweeping sanctions against Russia and shipping weapons and military vehicles to Kiev already worth tens of billions of dollars at this point.
A number of Western political figures acknowledged that this is effectively an economic war against Russia. On March 16, Putin stated that the Western sanctions policy against Moscow has all hallmarks of aggression, adding that the policy of deterrence of Russia is the long-term strategy of the West.
