Russia vows increased strikes on Ukraine over U.S. decision to send aid
Russia threatened to step up strikes on Ukraine in response to the U.S. vote to provide new military aid to the government in Kyiv.
“We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and storage bases for Western weapons” in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday at a meeting with senior military staff, according to the ministry’s Telegram channel. Russia will strengthen its armed forces “and increase the production of the most in-demand weapons and military equipment” in response to the support of the U.S. and its allies for Ukraine, he said.
President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Washington aims to start swiftly shipping battlefield and air-defense assistance after the U.S. House voted to pass the $61 billion package with military and economic aid at the weekend, ending six months of delay amid opposition from Republican hardliners.
While the Senate must still approve the measure, the Biden administration has already begun preparing a package that could head to Ukraine as soon as the president signs the bill into law, a U.S. official said last week.
Shortages in weapons and manpower along the front, along with a dire need for more air defense systems, have pushed Ukraine’s fighting forces close to a breaking point, raising the risk of a Russian breakthrough. Russian forces currently hold the initiative across the entire frontline, and are forcing Ukraine out of their positions, Shoigu said during the meeting.
Responding directly to the planned delivery of U.S. aid, Shoigu said “most of the allocation will go to finance the military-industrial complex in the United States.”
Moscow has repeatedly said Western weapons supplied to Ukraine are legitimate targets, and in 2022, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow warned that the transfer to Ukraine of a Patriot missile system would make the U.S. party to the war. Still, Ukraine has received air-defense systems including Patriots from its allies.
Shoigu also said Russia’s army is poised to receive the newest S-500 air-defense systems this year.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian
missile strike that smashed a television tower in Kharkiv was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to intimidate Ukraine’s second-largest city, which in recent weeks has come under increasingly frequent attack.
The strike sought to “make the terror visible to the whole city and to try to limit Kharkiv’s connection and access to information,” Zelenskyy said in a Monday evening address.
The northeastern Kharkiv region straddles the approximately 600mile front line where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been locked in battle for more than two years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The front line has changed little during a war of attrition, focused mostly on artillery, drones and trenches.
Since late March, Russia has stepped up the pressure on Kharkiv, apparently aiming to exploit Ukraine’s shortage of air defense systems. It has pounded the local power grid and hit apartment blocks.
On Monday, a Russian Kh-59 missile struck Kharkiv’s 820-foothigh TV tower, breaking it roughly in half and halting transmissions.
A Washington think tank said Russia may be eyeing a ground assault on Kharkiv.
“The Kremlin is conducting a concerted air and information operation to destroy Kharkiv City, convince Ukrainians to flee, and internally displace millions of Ukrainians ahead of a possible future Russian offensive operation against the city or elsewhere in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment.
The expected arrival in Ukraine in coming weeks of new military aid from its Western partners possibly has prompted Russia to escalate its attacks before the help arrives, the ISW said, adding that trying to capture Kharkiv would be “a significant challenge” for the Kremlin’s forces.
Instead, the Russian military command “may attempt to destroy Kharkiv City with air, missile, and drone strikes and prompt a large-scale internal displacement of Ukrainian civilians,” it said.
Also Tuesday, Britain pledged 500 million pounds ($620 million) in new military supplies for Ukraine, including 400 vehicles, 60 boats, 1,600 munitions and 4 million rounds of ammunition.
The shipment will also include British Storm Shadow long-range missiles, which have a range of about 150 miles and have proven effective at hitting Russian targets, the British government said.