مسيّرة تستهدف مركبة لوكالة الطاقة الذرية قرب محطة زابوريجيا النووية
Pentagon looks to vastly expand weapons for Ukraine
The Biden administration is poised to dramatically expand the scope of weapons it’s providing Ukraine, U.S. officials said Tuesday, with the Pentagon looking to send Mi-17 helicopters that can be equipped to attack Russian vehicles, armored Humvees and a range of other arms.
The new aid package could be worth $750 million, these people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the transfer has not yet been finalized.
Preliminary plans circulating among government officials and lawmakers in Washington also includes howitzer cannons, coastal defense drones and protective suits to safeguard personnel in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons attack, the officials said, though they cautioned that it was not immediately clear if all of those items would end up in the final package.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to comment.
The prospective new delivery, first reported by Reuters, comes on top of the more than $2.4 billion in U.S. security assistance provided since President Biden took office last year, including $1.7 billion in aid since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration have pleaded for more sophisticated weapons to counter the Russian military’s technological advantages. Ukraine’s military has defied initial expectations and mounted a ferocious resistance, having already staved off a bloody, weeks-long assault on the capital, Kyiv, that was aimed at toppling Zelensky’s administration.