The US is sending Ukraine about US$300 million (NZ$483 million) in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the “High mobility artillery rocket systems”, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti-tank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines.
The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive — with Ukrainian defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the “home stretch when we can say: ‘yes everything is ready’.” Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.
Reznikov said that the key things for the assault’s success would be “the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things — shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc”.
