According to two US officials, the Biden administration is preparing a larger-than-usual military aid package for Ukraine that will include armoured vehicles in addition to urgently needed artillery and air defence, with assurances coming as Russian attacks destroyed a television tower in Kharkiv, on Monday, the 22nd of April, reports Politico.
Defence Department officials are finalising plans for a new round of aid to Ukraine, to be ready soon after President Joe Biden’s approval. The Senate is expected to pass the bill as early as Tuesday, sending it to Biden.
The much broader package will include armoured vehicles such as Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Humvees, M113 armoured personnel carriers, as well as missiles, artillery and air defence systems.
The administration is preparing “a big package to meet Ukraine’s combat needs,”
the US official has said.
In a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, Biden pledged to quickly deliver “a significant new security assistance package to meet Ukraine’s immediate combat and air defence needs” as soon as he signs the new assistance into law, the statement said.
Pentagon Assistant Secretary for International Security Celeste Wallander recently told lawmakers that the Department of Defence plans to transfer the aid “within a week or two” of its approval.
Meanwhile, Russian missiles hit the 245-metre high Kharkiv television tower
on Monday afternoon, slashing it in half and disrupting the television signal in the area. Local officials reported that there were no casualties as staff were sheltering at the time of the attack.
Ukrainian officials urged the public to rely on official sources of information while the digital television signal was disrupted.
Ukrainian media figures condemned the attack on the television tower as a war crime.
There is no TV signal in Kharkiv after the collapse of the TV tower
As reported by the head of the regional military administration Oleg Sinegubov. He claims that mobile communication and the Internet work.
Recall that, according to the local Prosecutor’s office, the TV tower… pic.twitter.com/fYtXTgVy7f
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 23, 2024
Russian forces have continuously attacked Kharkiv in recent weeks. After the attack, President Zelensky wrote on social media that it was
“a clear Russian intention to make the city uninhabitable”.
He added that he had informed President Biden of the attack, which he said had taken place just before their talk on Monday.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, the number of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s television and radio infrastructure this year has increased significantly.
Also read: Russia: US support to Ukraine will end in “humiliating fiasco”
Also read: Zelenskyy says Putin wants to invade all countries from former USSR
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