Ukraine war briefing: US announces $2.3 billion military aid package for Kyiv | Ukraine

The United States will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in new security assistance to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umarov at the Pentagon.Austin said the latest weapons package will include anti-tank weapons and air defense interceptors, among others, and will enable accelerated procurement of Nasams (a surface-to-air missile system) and Patriot air defense interceptors.

Austin also mentioned Ukraine’s aspirations to eventually join NATO, more than two years after Russia’s large-scale invasion. Looking ahead to the NATO summit in Washington next week, he said: “We will take steps to build a bridge to NATO membership for Ukraine.” He did not provide any further details.

Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak discussed NATO members’ intentions to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance on Tuesday. said Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.

According to a comprehensive survey in 15 countries, most European countries now see a negotiated outcome with Russia rather than a direct military victory for Ukraine as the most likely outcome.Despite the defeats on the battlefield, support for Ukraine’s cause remains strong across Europe. However, European voters increasingly see a need to arm Ukraine – not to achieve complete victory on the battlefield, but to strengthen Ukraine’s position in future negotiations with Russia.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire to speed up an end to the war with Russia. “A ceasefire with a deadline would provide an opportunity to speed up peace talks. I have discussed this possibility with the president and am grateful for his honest answers and negotiations,” he said. Zelensky, who spoke before Orban, did not respond to those comments. The Ukrainian president had previously said Putin would not end his military offensive even if his ceasefire demands were met, and US Defense Secretary Austin noted that Putin could end the war he started “today if he chose to do so.” Orbán is an outspoken critic of Western aid to Ukraine. His trip to Kyiv came a day after Hungary took over the EU Council presidency until the end of the year, a cause of consternation for many other European politicians, as the country frequently clashes with Brussels over domestic issues and foreign policy.

Ukraine on Tuesday sentenced separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik from the breakaway Luhansk region to 12 years in prison in absentia for signing an agreement with the Kremlin that led to the Russian invasion in 2022. On February 21, 2022, Pasechnik and Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin signed a mutual assistance pact with Putin. Two days later, the two asked Putin for military assistance, and three days later Moscow launched its invasion, which has been devastating Ukraine ever since.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Tuesday the military launched a “devastating strike” on a Russian ammunition depot in Moscow-occupied Crimea on Monday. “Once again, Ukrainian aircraft, ‘destroyed’ by enemy propaganda, continue to successfully carry out combat missions,” Oleshchuk said on Telegram, referring to a Russian Defense Ministry report that five Ukrainian military jets were destroyed at an airfield in the Poltava region.

A court in the Russian city Rostov-on-Don sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for allegedly donating money to the Kiev armed forces. The FSB security service said the teenager had sent money to help the Kiev army buy drones and food for the troops, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. It said the defendant was detained at an airport as he tried to leave Russia.

In St. Petersburg, the prison sentence of activist and documentary filmmaker Vsevolod Korolev was more than doubled to seven years. after both he and prosecutors appealed against his original three-year prison sentence for criticizing the Ukraine offensive on social media. Korolev has been in custody since July 2022. He is accused of making “untrue” statements about massacres of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

Two women aged 61 and 86 were killed and nine others injured in Russian attacks on the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Tuesday, the regional governor said.Governor Serhiy Lysak said via the messenger Telegram that the attacks damaged residential buildings, educational institutions and a clinic in the city, which lies across the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.