US to send more HIMARS to Ukraine — RT World News

Ukraine will obtain 4 extra excessive mobility artillery rocket programs (HIMARS) from Washington as a part of the following safety help package deal, US Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin introduced on Wednesday.    

“Later this week, we’ll roll out our subsequent presidential drawdown package deal of weapons, ammunition and gear for Ukraine,” Austin stated whereas internet hosting a digital assembly of the US-led Ukraine Contact Group.  

“It’s going to embody 4 extra HIMARS superior rocket programs, which the Ukrainians have been utilizing so successfully and which have made such a distinction on the battlefield. And it’ll embody extra rounds of MLRS and artillery ammunition,” he added.   

In line with the Pentagon, as soon as delivered, the brand new package deal will convey the overall variety of HIMARS in Ukraine’s possession to 16.  

Final Friday, Ukraine’s protection minister, Alexey Reznikov, instructed the Monetary Occasions that Kiev was assured the West would ship extra help, together with 300km-range munitions for the HIMARS. He described the American-made rocket programs as a game-changer.   

HIMARS can hearth guided rockets at a spread of as much as 80km however may also deploy tactical ballistic missiles a distance of as much as 300 km. Washington beforehand stated it will not provide Ukraine with missiles having a spread of 300km out of worry they could possibly be used to strike Russian territory, thus vastly escalating the battle between Kiev and Moscow.  

“I believe it’s a step-by-step motion. We give them proof that we are able to use it with precision and class and we get extra, and longer vary,” Reznikov said.   

Nonetheless, in line with the spokesman for the military of the Donetsk Folks’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, Ukrainian forces could have already acquired 300km-range HIMARS missiles. DPR troops have discovered items of munitions with a spread of 110km to 120km, which meant that Kiev might have the 300km missiles as nicely, Basurin posited in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya 1 TV Channel on Tuesday.   

Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov stated as we speak the West’s persistence in pumping Ukraine with long-range weapons, together with the HIMARS, has already made Moscow rethink the objectives of its navy operation within the neighboring nation. They now transcend Donbass and embody a number of different Ukrainian areas, the minister defined in an interview with RT and Sputnik.

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