US to send advanced rocket systems to Ukraine
Testing widget old system
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said in a guest essay Tuesday evening in The New York Times that he’s decided to provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield.
The expectation is that Ukraine could use the rockets in the eastern Donbas region, where they could both intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in towns where fighting is intense, such as Sievierodonetsk.
That town 90 miles south of the Russian border is in an area that is the last pocket under Ukrainian government control in the Luhansk region of the Donbas.
In his New York Times’ essay, Biden said the U.S. is not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders and does not want to prolong the war “just to inflict pain on Russia.”
U.S. officials familiar with the decision did not detail how much the aid will cost, but it will be the 11th package approved so far and will be the first to tap the $40 billion in assistance recently passed by Congress.
Blood stains mark the stairs inside a building damaged in an overnight missile strike in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
Rescue workers inspect an apartments building damaged in an overnight missile strike in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
From right, Nila Zelinska, Eduard Zelenskyy, and Natalia Didenko arrive to their home town after escaping war in Potashnya, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) 
A boy runs in front of a building destroyed by attacks in Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) 
Natalia Makhno stands inside her home destroyed by attacks in Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) 
A woman stands outside a Church to receive clothing in Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) 
An elderly woman walks past a car damaged by an overnight missile strike in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko) 
Ludmila Telehyna, 73, looks into a neighbor’s appartment in the building where she lives, damaged in an overnight missile strike, in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
Residents carry water in front of an apartment building damaged in an overnight missile strike, in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
Ludmila Telehyna, 73, stands in her home apartment in a building damaged in an overnight missile strike in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
View of an apartment building damaged in an overnight missile strike, in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
FILE – Aeroflot’s passengers planes are parked at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. China has barred Russia’s airlines from flying foreign-owned jetliners into its airspace, the Russian news outlet RBK reported, after President Vladimir Putin threw ownership of the planes into doubt by allowing them to be re-registered in Russia to avoid seizure under sanctions over Moscow’s attack on Ukraine. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
Germany is also sending weapons to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, stepping up arms deliveries amid criticism that Germany isn’t doing enough to help Kyiv.
Scholz told German lawmakers on Wednesday that the government has decided to provide Ukraine with IRIS-T missiles developed by Germany together with other NATO nations.
He said Germany will also supply Ukraine with radar systems to help locate enemy artillery.
The announcements come amid claims at home and abroad that Germany has been slow to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia.
In southern Ukraine, a regional governor Ukraine says Russian troops are retreating and blowing up bridges to obstruct a possible Ukrainian advance.
Mykolayiv region Gov. Vitaliy Kim claimed Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that Russia was on the defensive.
“They are afraid of a breakthrough by the (Ukrainian Armed Forces), but we are not afraid and we support our troops,” he wrote.
Kim didn’t specify exactly where the retreat he described was happening. The parts of the Mykolayiv region which have been held by Russian forces in recent days are close to the large Russia-occupied city of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters had seen “some success in the Kherson direction.”
Russia is concentrating most of its military power on trying to capture all of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
