By Deutsche Welle
Jun 21, 2024, 00:56 AM EDT
The United States announced that it will prioritize deliveries of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine to confront a “massive” Russian bombing campaign against its energy plants that is causing electricity outages.
The United States “has made the difficult but necessary decision to reprioritize the planned short-term deliveries of military sales to other countries, particularly Patriot and NASAMS missiles, to send them to Ukraine,” the spokesman for the National Security Council announced in Washington , John Kirby.
Delays will not affect equipment shipments
“Deliveries of these missiles to other countries that are currently waiting will have to be delayed,” he added, clarifying that these delays will not affect shipments of this type of equipment to Taiwan or Israel.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has asked to install solar panels “as soon as possible” in “every school and every hospital” in the former Soviet republic, which has been facing a Russian military invasion for more than two years, to alleviate the electricity cuts caused. by Russian attacks.
Russian attacks on power plants
Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including a power plant, was damaged in an overnight bombing that left seven employees injured, authorities announced Thursday.
According to the Ukrainian operator DTEK, this is the seventh attack against Ukrainian power plants in the last three months.
For its part, kyiv has attacked numerous refineries and other oil infrastructure within the Russian Federation with self-made drones in recent months, in an attempt to decimate the Russian war economy and deprive the Russian Army fighting in Ukraine of part of the fuel you need.
Millions of dollars in weapons
The United States has been a key military support for Ukraine, committing more than $51 billion in weapons, ammunition and other security aid since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
For its part, Romania promised to send an American Patriot anti-aircraft system to Ukraine.
This system was progressively imposed on the armed forces of several NATO countries, which are reluctant to hand them over to Ukraine because they claim to need them to protect their own territories.
During the Peace Summit, in a conference, Volodymir Zelensky said that Russia is now “not ready for peace” and that this is demonstrated by the approach of Russian President Vladimir Putin, that to start negotiations, Ukraine must abandon the territories illegally occupied by Russian forces.
Keep reading:
- Volodimir Zelensky: Russia is not willing to have a “just peace”
- Eighty countries defend Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” at peace summit
- Russian attack leaves 9 dead and 29 injured in Krivi Rig