WORLD NEWS | Biden approves a new $300 million military aid package for Ukraine

WASHINGTON, May 31 (AP) — President Joe Biden has approved a new military aid package for Ukraine totaling up to $300 million that includes additional munitions for drones and a range of other weapons. This comes as Russia continues to strike the Ukrainian capital and drones target Moscow.

U.S. officials said there was no indication that U.S.-made drones or munitions were used in the Moscow attack, which the Kremlin blames on Ukraine but which Kiev has not acknowledged. The Biden administration said it had made it clear to Ukraine that U.S.-made weapons should not be used for attacks inside Russia.

Read also | The South African Zimbabwean has a deadline looming.

“We don’t tell them where to strike. We don’t tell them where they can’t strike. … Ultimately, it’s President Zelensky and his military commanders who decide militarily what they’re going to do,” said a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. John Kirby said on Wednesday. But he added that the U.S. has been “very clear to the Ukrainians privately, and we have certainly made it clear publicly that we do not support attacks inside Russia.” “

He said Zelensky had assured the United States that Ukrainians respected those concerns.

Read also | U.S. job openings hit 10.1 million as the labor market remained strong despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy.

The new aid package provides ammunition to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses against Russian airstrikes on Kiev. It supplies the Patriot missile battery and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) as well as the Avenger and Stinger air defense systems, mine clearance equipment, anti-armor rounds, unguided Zuni aircraft rockets, night vision goggles and approximately 30 million rounds of ammunition. Arms ammunition and an unknown number of other shells.

Residential buildings were slightly damaged in a rare drone strike in Moscow on Tuesday. Throughout the bitter war, the West has tried to prevent the conflict from expanding beyond Ukraine, but the West has not sufficiently condemned the attack on Russian territory, Russian officials said.

Asked about Moscow’s criticism of Western backing for an attack inside Russia, Kirby scoffed that the Russians “wouldn’t believe anything I have to say.”

He said the U.S. had made it clear that it would not change its policy of not implementing or encouraging strikes inside Russia, but added, “I don’t think we would take that privately as a burden to the Russians. The Russians.”

Ukrainian officials cheered Tuesday’s drone attack but did not claim responsibility, a response similar to what they have said after previous strikes on Russian territory.

U.S. officials did not provide details on the munitions for the drones in the new aid package, nor did they specify which drones would use them. Last year, the Ministry of Defense provided Ukraine with a variety of drones for surveillance and strikes, including at least two versions of the Switchblade, a so-called kamikaze drone that can hover in the sky and then explode to attack Target.

Including the latest aid, the United States has pledged more than $37.6 billion in weapons and other equipment to Ukraine since Russia launched the attack on February 24, 2022. The latest package will come under the presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons from its stockpile and quickly ship them to Ukraine, officials said. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)