The United States announced Wednesday that it will send an additional $800 million in arms, ammunition and other defense assistance to Ukraine for help her fend off the Russian attack in the eastern region of the country.
“As Russia prepares to intensify its attack in the Donbass region,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House, “the United States will continue to provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself.”
Biden held a telephone conversation a little earlier with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, about the new shipment and concluded in a statement: “The Ukrainian army has used the weapons we are providing with devastating effect.”
Biden’s deal to send more weapons to Ukraine, along with additional helicopters, came after Zelenskyy said in a video calling for more weapons that “freedom must be better armed than tyranny.”
“Without additional weapons, this will turn into an endless bloodbath spreading misery, suffering and destruction,” the Ukrainian president settled.
The US president explained that the constant Western supply of weapons to Ukraine “has been essential to sustain its fight against the Russian invasion. He has helped ensure that [el presidente ruso, Vladimir] Putin will fail in his initial war goals of conquering and controlling Ukraine. We cannot rest now.”
Four neighbors visit Ukraine
Biden’s announcement came on the same day that the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all NATO countries that border Russia, visited kyiv to show support for Ukraine, a day after Putin vowed to continue the Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine to its “complete completion”.
The leaders of the four NATO countries, all concerned that Moscow might attack them if Ukraine fell to Russian troops, traveled by train to the Ukrainian capital to meet with Zelenskyy.
Yes ok they failed to capture kyiv and much of Ukraine, Russian forces shelled numerous cities, killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians and destroying homes and hospitals before Moscow withdrew its forces from western Ukraine.
A US Defense Department official said Russia is regrouping its forces, including helicopters and artillery systems, in Belarus to make a “renewed push” against eastern Ukraine.
The UN does not see a ceasefire close
The United Nations humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, recently traveled to Moscow and kyiv to seek a ceasefire. But UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Wednesday that doesn’t seem possible at the moment.
However, Guterres said that there are “a number of proposals that have been made and we are awaiting a response from the Russian Federation in relation to those proposals, including different mechanisms for local ceasefires, for corridors, for humanitarian assistance, evacuations and others. different that can minimize the dramatic impact we are witnessing on civilians.”
Guterres said the UN has also proposed creating a mechanism involving Russia, Ukraine, the UN and potentially other humanitarian entities, to help ensure the evacuation of civilians from areas of fighting and to ensure humanitarian access.
While recently acknowledging that it has suffered a significant loss of troops, Moscow said on Wednesday that more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in the besieged port of Mariupol. Information could not be verified.
Accusation of “genocide” against Russia
Biden qualified for the first time on Tuesday Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “a genocide” and claimed that “Putin is only seeking to eliminate the idea of being Ukrainian.”
Zelenskyy praise Biden’s use of the word, saying “calling a thing by its name is essential to confronting evil.”
When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Biden’s claims, she clarified: “The president was talking about what we all see, what he feels is clear as the day to day of the atrocities that They happen on the ground.”
Psaki added that Biden did not want to skip the legal process of gathering evidence on the genocide committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, however, he specified that the president “was talking about what he sees, what he has seen on the ground, what we have all seen on the ground in terms of the atrocities.”
The spokeswoman made it clear that Washington now has “a goal” and reinforced it with the aid announcement of the day: “As evidenced by the huge package of military assistance that we launched today, it is to continue to help and assist the Ukrainians in this war. and in which we see atrocities occur. Every day.”
Almost in unison, State Department spokesman Ned Price defended the president’s “genocide” comments at a press conference and explained details of the route to a declaration of this magnitude against the Kremlin.
“We are engaged in a process right now to work with partners around the world, but first and foremost, our Ukrainian partners to help them collect, preserve, document and share evidence of atrocities, possible war crimes and yes, if reaches that legal threshold of genocide, we are working very closely with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, who has established a team under its jurisdiction to initiate a criminal case with a view to possible prosecutions.”
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected Biden’s description, saying: “We find this kind of effort to distort the situation unacceptable. This is hardly acceptable from a president of the United States, a country that has committed notorious crimes in recent times.”
European leaders in Ukraine
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said European leaders visiting Ukraine planned to send “a strong message of political support and military assistance.”
Nauseda, Estonian President Alar Karis, Pole Andrzej Duda and Egils Levits of Latvia also planned to discuss ongoing investigations into alleged Russian war crimes, including the massacre of civilians.
Putin has denied that Russia committed atrocities against Ukraine, saying he had “no choice” but to invade Ukraine to protect Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine and “ensure Russia’s own security.” He promised that Russia “will continue (its offensive) until its complete completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set”, although he had not worked out his final goals.
* VOA reporters Jeff Seldin in Washington and Luis Felipe Rojas in Miami contributed to this report. AP, AFP and Reuters information was also used.
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