U.S. providing $300M in more aid to Ukraine
Wartorn nation readying for spring offensive
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti-tank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks so they can go quickly to the front lines. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not been formally announced.
The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are preparing a counteroffensive — with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring that they are in the “home stretch when we can say: ‘Yes, everything is ready.’” Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.
Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assault’s success would be “the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things — shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.”
The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. Officials said there will also be trucks, trailers, spare parts and other maintenance assistance.
This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.
Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate focused on heavy fighting in Ukraine’s east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.
Denmark announced Tuesday that it was donating $251 million in aid to Ukraine, including mine-clearance vehicles, munition, field bridges and money for air defenses.
“We know that the Russians have entrenched themselves in the occupied territories of Ukraine with trenches, minefields and other obstacles to stop a Ukrainian offensive,” acting Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.
“The material in the donation package is important to pave the way for Ukrainian tanks and the armored infantry in the front line.”
DOUBLING OUTPUT
Russia’s defense chief Tuesday urged a state company to double its missile output as a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive looms and both sides in the 14-month war reportedly experience an ammunition crunch.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking at a meeting with top military brass, said the state-owned Tactical Missiles Corporation had been fulfilling its contracts in a timely manner.
But, Shoigu added, “right now it is necessary to double the production of high-precision weapons in the shortest possible time.”
Analysts have been trying to figure out whether Russia is running low on high-precision ammunition because its missile barrages against Ukraine have become less frequent and smaller in scale.
The U.K. Defense Ministry noted in an assessment Tuesday that “logistics problems remain at the heart of Russia’s struggling campaign in Ukraine.”
“Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive,” it said.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Washington’s latest estimate of Russia’s losses in Ukraine as “spun out of thin air.”
The White House said Monday it now estimated that Russia had suffered 100,000 casualties just since December, including more than 20,000 killed as Ukraine rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. estimate was based on newly declassified American intelligence. He did not explain how the intelligence community derived the number.
“Washington doesn’t have the opportunity to give any correct numbers. They don’t have such data,” Peskov said.
Later Tuesday, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian forces launched 30 airstrikes, three missile strikes and eight attacks from multiple rocket launchers, resulting in casualties among the civilian population and damage to civilian infrastructure.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in the country’s Donetsk province.
The prosecutor’s office in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province reported that Russian shelling in the regional capital, also called Kherson, and several villages killed three people and wounded five.
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, say they are readying their own counteroffensive and stockpiling ammunition to sustain it along potentially long supply lines.
TRAIN DERAILED
In Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders northern Ukraine, an “unidentified explosive device” derailed a freight train, Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Tuesday evening.
Russian Railways confirmed that “illegal interference” caused 20 cars of the freight train to derail. No casualties were reported.
An explosive device also derailed a freight train Monday in Bryansk.
There were no immediate indications of who set off the explosives, but Bryansk has received sporadic cross-border shelling during the war. In March, two people were reported killed in what regional officials described as an incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs.
In recent months, amid winter weather, the conflict has become bogged down in a war of attrition that has depleted ammunition stocks.
The Kremlin’s forces took aim at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with long-range strikes, while Kyiv zeroed in on Russian targets with precision artillery provided by its Western allies.
In February, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Ukraine was using up ammunition far faster than its allies could provide it.
According to some estimates, Ukraine was at that time firing up to 6,000 to 7,000 artillery shells each day, around a third of the daily amount Russia was using almost one year into the war.
Sporadic nighttime Russian shelling continued to hit Ukrainian areas early Tuesday, officials said. At least seven civilians were wounded, authorities said.