WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The U.S. is in the process of finalizing the latest arms package to Ukraine, which will include “medium- and long-range air defense capabilities,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday.
“As the President told his fellow G7 leaders - and as he told President Zelensky - we do intend to finalize a package that includes advanced medium- and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians, along with some other data-x-items that are of urgent need, including ammunition for artillery and counterbattery radar systems,” Sullivan told reporters in Germany.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced another package of weapons on Thursday, including more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition. Patrol boats will also be given to the Ukrainians, which the White House said would help Kyiv defend its coastlines.
During a meeting between G7 leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sullivan said the latter requested further air defense systems. “In particular, at the top of his mind was the set of missile strikes that took place in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, and his desire to get additional air defense capabilities that could shoot down Russian missiles out in sky.”
The latest announcement by the U.S. was the thirteenth time that Biden authorized what is referred to as a presidential drawdown since Russia launched an operation in Ukraine. Since Feb. 24, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with more than $6 billion in military assistance.
On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Russia had tried to stop the supply of military aid to Ukraine but noted no evidence of “any Russian success in intercepting” weapons assistance. “That is unlikely to change,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Western nations on Monday pledged unwavering support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, including more sanctions on Moscow, as Russian forces closed in on the last big city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk province.
A Russian missile struck a crowded shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, southeast of Kyiv, Zelensky said, and an aide said at least two people had been killed.
Leaders of the Group of Seven, meeting at a German alpine resort, said they would keep sanctions on Russia for as long as necessary and intensify international pressure on President Vladimir Putin’s government and its ally Belarus.
“Imagine if we allowed Putin to get away with the violent acquisition of huge chunks of another country, sovereign, independent territory,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC.
“The lessons for that would be absolutely chilling. The point I would make to people is I think that sometimes the price of freedom is worth paying.”
Despite the boost from its allies, Ukraine was enduring another difficult day on the battlefront following the loss of the now-ruined city of Sievierodonetsk after weeks of bombardment and street fighting.
Russian artillery was pounding Lysychansk, its twin just across the Siverskyi Donets River, which Luhansk province governor Serhiy Gaidai said was suffering “catastrophic” damage. He urged civilians to evacuate urgently.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the Russians were trying to cut off Lysychansk from the south. Russian war planes had also struck near the city, the general staff said in its daily update.
Russian reports on Sunday that troops had already entered Lysychansk could not be confirmed independently.
Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk province make up the Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland and a prime target for the Kremlin.
Russian forces also control territory in the south, including the port city of Mariupol, which fell after a long siege that left it in ruins.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Russia had carried out about 60 strikes against Ukraine over the weekend.
In his address to the G7 leaders, Zelensky had pleaded for more arms, U.S. and European officials said. He asked for help to export grain from Ukraine and for more sanctions on Russia.
NATO will massively boost the number of troops on high readiness to over 300,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, with allies set to adopt a new strategy describing Moscow as a direct threat four months into the Ukraine war.
“Russia has walked away from the partnership and the dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels ahead of a NATO summit later this week in Madrid.
“They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that - but of course, then we need to respond to that reality,” he told reporters.
The June 28-29 summit comes at a pivotal moment for the alliance after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the alliance.
But the war in Ukraine has sparked a geopolitical shift, prompting once neutral countries Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO and Ukraine to secure the status of candidate to join the European Union.
Stoltenberg said NATO would transform its existing quick reaction force, the NATO Response Force, which already has some 40,000 troops on high readiness, and raise the overall number to “well over 300,000”.
The move is part of NATO’s work on a new force structure that will likely see national troops put on different alert levels so the alliance has more combat-ready forces ready on short notice in case of a crisis.
At the summit, NATO will also change its language on Russia from the current wording, enshrined at its Lisbon summit in 2010, describing Moscow as a strategic partner.
“I expect the allies will state clearly that Russia poses a direct threat to our security, to our values, to the rules-based international order,” Stoltenberg said.
NATO combat units on the alliance’s eastern flank, especially in the Baltics, are to be boosted to brigade level, with thousands of pre-assigned troops on standby in countries further west like Germany as rapid reinforcements, he added.
“Together, this constitutes the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War,” he said.
At the same time, Stoltenberg dampened hopes for a break-through at the summit to overcome Turkey’s opposition to the membership bids of Sweden and Finland.
“I will not make any promises or speculate about any specific time lines. The summit has never been a deadline,” said Stoltenberg, who is scheduled to meet the leaders of all three countries in Madrid on Tuesday.