This announcement, which comes at a time when Russia has just launched a new offensive in the Donbass, marks a change in attitudes among Westerners, who have refused to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons for more than a month.
Ukraine has received fighter jets and spare parts to bolster its air force, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday, refusing to specify their number or the countries that supplied the plane. Following the shipment of howitzer artillery pieces announced by Joe Biden last week, this announcement, which comes at a time when Russia has just launched a new offensive in the Donbass, reflects a change in attitude on the part of Westerners, who For more than a month, Ukraine refused to provide heavy weapons, in order to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
Read alsoRussia launches its offensive on the Donbass with an intense bombing campaign
†Today (the Ukrainians) have more fighter jets at their disposal than two weeks ago.”the spokesman said at a press conference. †Without going into detail about what other countries are supplying, I would say they have received additional aircraft and spare parts to expand their fleet.” he added. These are likely Russian-made MiG-29s, which Kiev has been asking for since the start of the conflict and which has a handful of Eastern European countries. Poland had proposed in early March to transfer such planes via a US base, but the United States had opposed it, fearing that Russia would see too much direct NATO involvement in the conflict.
John Kirby did not name the donor countries, but he hinted that they were indeed Russian-made devices. †Other countries that have experience with this type of aircraft have been able to help them put more aircraft into service.”, he said. He said the United States had facilitated the shipment of spare parts to Ukrainian territory, but had not sent any planes there. The United States and the European Union announced on Tuesday that they would not stop there.
“Increase the pressure on the Kremlin”
French leaders Emmanuel Macron, Briton Boris Johnson, German Olaf Scholz, Romanian Klaus Iohannis, Pole Andrzej Duda, Italian Mario Draghi, Canadian Justin Trudeau and Japanese Fumio Kishida have managed to “audio conference”a broad consensus on the need to increase pressure on the Kremlin”, according to the Italian government. In particular they havereaffirmed their commitment to continue their military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Boris Johnson “reported to other leaders during his visit to Kiev this month,” noted a Downing Street spokesman. He underlined the urgent need for additional military aid to Ukraine in light of a major Russian offensive in the Donbass and ongoing attacks elsewhere. According to CNN and NBC News, the United States will approve a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $800 million, less than a week after an earlier announcement of an tranche of the same amount.
Read alsoIn the Donbass, the modernized Ukrainian army fears losing its advantage
The first shipments of the new tranche of US military aid to Ukraine have already arrived at the country’s borders to be handed over to the Ukrainian military, and the United States will train Ukrainian soldiers in the use of state-of-the-art M777 Howitzer guns. -the-art artillery pieces that the United States first decided to transfer to the Ukrainian military. Even if their handling is not fundamentally different from that of artillery with which the Ukrainian military is familiar, these guns use 155mm shells, used by NATO countries, while Ukraine does not yet have 152mm shells of Russian origin.
Armaments have been transferred daily to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, with the participating countries not wanting to act as belligerents in this conflict. According to Czech media, Prague sent trains loaded with T-72 tanks and Soviet armored vehicles to Ukraine in early April, an unprecedented operation. Official sources declined to confirm this information.
Czech arms companies will repair Ukrainian heavy military equipment, following a recent request from authorities in Kiev, the Czech Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Initially, subsidiaries of the industrial holding company Czechoslovak Group (CSG) will take over the repair of Soviet-designed T-64 medium tanks, operated by Ukrainian forces, but in the future repairs could be extended to BRD and BRDM armored vehicles, involving other Czech companies, according to a ministerial statement.
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