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| Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ Ukrinform via Getty |
The most recent raft of U.S. military aid to Ukraine contained weapons specifically designed for the new phase of the war with Russia in the Donbas region.
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has committed more than $1.5 billion in aid that included howitzers, Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, and more. They are now prioritizing different types of equipment given the Russian military's new focus on the region in eastern Ukraine.
"You’ve heard us talk or say in the past, recent past, the nature of the fight has evolved because the terrain that they’re now focused on is a different type of terrain. So they need long-range fires," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a press conference in Poland on Monday. "You’ve heard them express a need for tanks. And we are doing everything that we can to get them the types of support, the types of artillery and munitions that will be effective in this stage of the fight."
Russian forces regrouped, and many have redeployed to the Donbas, where there is a significant pro-Russian separatist presence and fighting between the two sides has persisted since 2014. Secondarily, the Russians looking to capture the territory along the southeastern coast of Ukraine that would provide them with a land corridor from Crimea, which they annexed in 2014, and the Donbas.
“It’s not forest. It’s not urban,” retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner of the Donbas region. “It’s lower population density.” --->READ MORE HERE
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| VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTER |
A junior U.K. defense minister said Tuesday that it was completely legitimate for Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with weapons provided by the West.
James Heappey, a U.K. minister for the armed forces, said Ukrainians are within their rights to use Western weapons to hit logistics and supply lines in Russia.
“Things that the international community are now providing to Ukraine have the range to be used over the borders,” he told Times Radio. “That is not necessarily a problem.” Mr. Heappey said it was ultimately up to the Ukrainian military to decide how weapons they received were used.
The statement is a change of tack for the U.K. which for months has provided weapons on the proviso that they be used to defend Ukraine from Russian attack. The U.K. shipped over 5,000 antitank missiles to Ukraine as it fought off a Russian invasion into the northern part of the country. The U.K. government argued at the time that these short-range weapons could only be used defensively and not in any offensive capacity. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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