As the Russia-Ukraine war reaches its six-month anniversary, the United States will provide $3 billion in fresh military aid to Kyiv to train and equip the Ukrainian fighters for years to come.
According to The Associated Press, which has cited US officials, the package is expected to be announced on Wednesday, the day the war hits the six-month mark and Ukraine celebrates its independence day.
The assistance will go into funding contracts for three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, the officials said.
The latest announcement comes even as the US has warned that Russia might amp up the strikes on major civilian targets coinciding with the independence day observations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also urged citizens to be on guard against “Russian terror.”
Russia is expected to up the ante after Kremlin vowed to punish those involved in the assassination of Daria Dugina—the daughter of an ultranationalist intellectual allied with President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow believes Ukraine is responsible for the killing, but the latter has denied responsibility for the Saturday bombing, which apparently targeted Dugina’s father Alexander Dugin.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the investigation into the attack would be completed soon.
“According to the results of this investigation, there can be no mercy for those who organised, ordered and carried out” the car bombing, he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
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Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia traded charges at a Tuesday meeting of the UN Security Council on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian troops, with Ukraine and its allies demanding Russia pull its troops out of the plant and agree to a demilitarised zone.
(With inputs from agencies)
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