The United States has announced a new military assistance to Ukraine during a closed secret trip to Kyiv on Sunday US Secretary of State and the head of the Pentagon. This is reported by Western agencies with reference to sources, in particular Associated Press.
During the American visit to the capital at the highest level from the beginning of the Russian invasion at the end of February, the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin announced foreign military financing for Ukraine and 15 allied countries and partners in the amount of $ 713 million. For Kyiv, at the same time there are about $ 322 million.
The remaining funds will be divided between NATO members and other countries that provided Ukraine with important military supplies from the beginning of the war with Russia, officials said.
This financing differs from the previous US military assistance to Ukraine. This is not a donation of the stocks of the US Department of Defense, and cash that countries can use to purchase supplies that they may need.
According to officials, new money, together with the sale of ammunition made not in the US compatible with weapons of Soviet times by $ 165 million, increase the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine to $ 3.7 billion from the moment of invasion.
Being in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin met with Zelensky, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Kuleleba, Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov and the Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastic on an expanded, approximately 90-minute bilateral meeting, said a senior official of the State Department.