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The Pentagon announced Friday it was sending an additional $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to face Russian forces augmented by more than 10,000 North Korean troops.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had said more aid was coming, and soon, during his visit to Kyiv last week.
This aid package includes weapons that will be pulled from existing U.S. stockpiles, including air defense interceptors for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155 mm artillery, and armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.
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Ukraine’s eastern cities continue to face an onslaught of Russian missile strikes, including one on Kharkiv by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) glide bomb. The attack Thursday hit an apartment complex, killing three and injuring scores.
In addition, Ukraine is facing new uncertainty as waves of North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have arrived near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to join the fight against Ukrainian troops in coming days.
Russia has increasingly used powerful glide bombs to pummel Ukrainian positions along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) line of contact and strike cities dozens of kilometers (miles) from the front line. Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border.
The aid package announced Friday by the Pentagon brings the total amount of military assistance the U.S. has provided Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022 to $60.4 billion.
Meanwhile, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has pushed back against Western military support for Ukraine, accusing European countries of not being interested in a peaceful resolution to the war and saying providing Kyiv with weapons only prolongs the fighting.
“It was Western politicians who, on the contrary, did everything possible to ensure that no realistic peace agreements were signed in April 2022, shortly after the outbreak of the conflict, and Zelensky’s peace plan fell into the dust as unrealistic,” Fico said in a video message recorded in Beijing.
