The United States will provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems and munition, President Joe Biden said in an opinion essay published Tuesday in The New York Times.
What they’re saying: He said that the U.S. “will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
- “We will continue providing Ukraine with advanced weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters and ammunition,” Biden added.
- The U.S. will continue to impose sanctions and provide financial assistance and collaborative assistance with NATO, Biden said.
Details: According to The Guardian, the medium-range rockets can travel up to 45 miles, meaning they can be shot into Russia from the Ukrainian border.
- “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia,” Biden said in the essay.
Worth noting: The Kremlin criticized the U.S. decision to send rockets to Ukraine, saying that it would make the situation worse.
“We believe that the U.S. is deliberately pouring oil on the fire. The U.S. is obviously holding the line that it will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, per Al Jazeera.
State of play: This news comes as Germany also promises to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the country will send IRIS-T’s surface-to-air missiles, Germany’s most modern air defense system, per The Associated Press.
“With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air attacks,” he said. “The radar systems will also help Ukraine locate enemy artillery.”