US announces $250 million in new military aid for Ukraine

US President Joe Biden is set to approve an additional $250 million in security assistance for Ukraine despite warnings about the repercussions of funneling military aid to Kiev and prolonging a devastating war with Russia.

"I'm pleased to say that President Biden will announce today an additional $250 million security assistance package for Ukraine. It will surge more capabilities to meet Ukraine's evolving requirements and will deliver them at the speed of war," said Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin at the start of talks in a Ukraine Defense Contact Group Meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday.

“This coalition of some 50 nations stands united and firm, and today we will push even harder to step up our support for Ukraine,” he said, adding, "This is a critical moment. Time is of the essence, especially with winter on its way, and we must all step up our support and quickly."

The new military aid to Ukraine is expected to include ammunition for HIMARS precision rocket launchers, artillery rounds, anti-tank and anti-air weapons.

Austin’s statement comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are advancing into Russia's Kursk region which Russian forces are pushing deeper in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

Zelensky: Ukraine needs 'more weapons' 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday met in person with top US military officials and the representatives of Kiev’s international backers at the meeting in the southwest of Frankfurt to press for more weapons support.

"We need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land," said Zelensky, who has reshuffled his cabinet recently amid war losses.

The Ukrainian president urged Kiev’s supporters to follow through on previous commitments regarding air defense systems and called for restrictions on the use of long-range Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia to be lifted.

"We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory," Zelensky added as the talks in Germany are focused on areas including bolstering Ukraine's air defenses.

Zelensky was also meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday and then head to Italy.

Putin says Russia’s ‘main’ objective in Ukraine war is to capture Donbas region

President Putin says Russia’s primary objective in the Ukraine war is to capture the Donbas region.

The United States has been Ukraine's biggest backer since the war broke out more than two and a half years ago, providing military aid worth upwards of $56 billion, with uncertainty looming over the future of that funding as a US election in November could see Ukraine-sceptic Donald Trump back in the White House.

Germany, Ukraine's second-biggest backer, has also come under pressure domestically over its aid for Kiev, which has been at the center of a protracted row over the 2025 budget.

Moscow launched its special military operation on February 24, 2022, aiming to liberate the Donbas region where the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were suffering from regular attacks on them by Ukrainian forces.

Since the war started, the Western countries' support for Ukraine in fighting a proxy war against Russia has led to the delivery of hundreds of shipments of military equipment, including all kinds of weapons and munitions, to the former Soviet republic.

The Western countries even supplied long-range missiles, tanks and warplanes to Ukraine despite initial resistance, turning the conflict into a full-fledged war.

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