dpa
Washington/Kiev
The United States is providing further military aid to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia, including controversial cluster munitions.
The new package is valued at $375mn, the US State Department said in an announcement. It also includes ammunition for Himars multiple rocket launchers, artillery ammunition, as well as armoured light vehicles and patrol boats. The equipment comes from US military stocks.
Cluster munitions are made up of bomblets sealed in containers that can be fired from the ground or the air. They then spread over a wide area, with many failing to detonate on contact and remaining a hazard for years afterwards.
More than 100 countries have banned their use. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has signed the international convention on banning the munitions, which entered force in 2010. The Ukrainian leadership argues that it needs these weapons to defend itself and to liberate occupied territories in its conflict with neighbouring Russia.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US has provided military aid to Kiev amounting to around $56bn, according to Pentagon figures. In July last year, Washington publicly delivered cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time. Russia described their use as a further escalation in the war.
Meanwhile, the Russian Air Force fired four Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles at Ukraine on Thursday morning, after sending dozens of combat drones overnight, Ukrainian officials said. The missiles’ target was the city of Starokostyantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine. There is a military airfield there where F-16 fighter jets supplied by Western allies are reportedly stationed. There was no immediate information as to whether the missiles hit their targets. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that of the 78 detected Russian drones, 66 were shot down.
Thousands of kilometres away in New York, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “nuclear blackmail.” “Russia has nothing left but nuclear blackmail; it has no other instruments to intimidate the world,” Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday evening. The attempted scare will not work, however, he wrote.
