US President Joe Biden announced a new US$225 million aid package for Ukraine on Thursday, including a Patriot missile system to bolster its air defenses against a deadly onslaught of Russian airstrikes.
Biden made the announcement during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who called the announcement “strong news,” but pressed that for the immediate future, what the Ukrainians also need is US permission to fire the long-range missiles it has provided at targets deeper inside Russia.
The Patriot air defense system, the second the US has provided to Ukraine, is one of several Biden announced this week at the NATO summit and is part of a swell of pledges to get weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks, including one this week that hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Photo: AFP
The US$225 million package also includes Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and more 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, among other munitions.
Zelenskiy late last month requested additional US-made Patriot systems, adding that they would help his forces fight the close to 3,000 bombs that he said Russia launches into the country every month.
On Tuesday, through a joint statement the US, Germany and Romania said they would provide Ukraine with Patriot batteries, while the Netherlands and others would provide Patriot components to make up one more battery and Italy would provide a SAMP-T air defense system.
Other allies, including Canada, Norway, Spain and the UK, would provide other systems that would help Ukraine expand its coverage. Those systems include NASAMS, HAWKs, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS and Gepards.
Other nations have agreed to provide munitions for those systems.
The additional US Patriot system would be paid for through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the US military to pull the system directly from its stocks and quickly get it to Ukraine.
Last week, the US pledged US$150 million in weapons to be pulled directly from its stocks, including air defense interceptors, artillery and anti-tank weapons.
It also pledged US$2.2 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, a mechanism used to put longer-term weapons systems on order, including Patriot missiles and NASAM air defense systems.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS