US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that at the moment hostilities in Ukraine are at a decisive stage. He stressed that the West will continue to look for new ways to provide long-term military assistance to Ukraine.
“We are talking about the decisive phase of the conflict. Therefore, our collective support to Ukraine is vital, it must be urgent,” he said.
The head of the Pentagon said, “Russia thinks it can outlast Ukraine, outlast us. But this is only the latest in Russia’s miscalculations.”
He promised that the Allied Contact Group would replace its assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine so that Ukraine has the “technology, ammunition and fair firepower” necessary for defense. “Our contribution results in real change,” Austin added.
The head of the Pentagon noted that the Ukrainian army has demonstrated its ability to control HIMARS, M-270 multiple launch rocket systems and 155-mm howitzers transferred to them. These weapons were “very important in the wars in Donbass,” says Austin. According to him, Washington will allocate four HIMARS to Ukraine in the coming days.
On July 20, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley said that about 200 Ukrainian soldiers could use these missile systems. At the same time, the United States delivered 12 of the 20 promised MLRS to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“We have transferred 12 HIMARS to Ukraine so far. This is part of more than 20 agreements committed by the United States and our allies, Milley told reporters after the fourth meeting of the countries providing military aid to Kiev.
The Washington Post previously wrote that NATO will increase the supply of HIMARS MLRS in the coming months to “consolidate the achievements” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Referring to a European official, the newspaper reports that the defense organizations of the USA and European countries want to accelerate the production of weapons.
According to Valery Zaluzhny, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in The Washington Post, American HIMARS is helping the Ukrainian military “stabilize” efforts to protect the front line.
After meeting with General Mark A. Milley, Zaluzhny spoke of the fact that long-range missile systems are a key factor in “carrying out point-hit attacks on enemy command posts, ammunition depots and fuel depots”.
On July 19, John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the White House National Security Council, announced that Washington would deliver its sixteenth military aid package to Kiev this week. It will contain additional MLRS HIMARS and its ammunition, as well as artillery shells.
“We will continue to provide historic levels of security assistance to Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the US presidential administration said. Said. In his opinion, the Ukrainian army very effectively uses the American MLRS to change the situation on the battlefield.
Shortly before Kirby’s statement, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that Ukraine needs MLRS missiles with a range of more than 150 km. He stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are currently using missiles with a range of 80 km. According to him, the military “proved to our partners that they can use them economically and accurately.”
“Russian troops have started to move away from our positions, so we need more than 100 missiles with a range of more than 150 km to shoot at them and be more effective,” Reznikov said.
It is also noted that for the successful “containment” of the Russian Armed Forces Ukraine needs at least 50 HIMARS systems and twice as many for a counterattack. At the same time, only 540 copies were produced during the production of these MLRSs.
Meanwhile, Moscow warns that if the West supplies Kiev with long-range weapons, the “geography” of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine will go deep into Ukraine. This statement was made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
He noted that Moscow cannot allow the part of Ukraine under the control of President Volodymyr Zelensky to have weapons that pose a threat to Russia.
Lavrov also noted that the geographical direction of the special operations has changed a bit: “When the negotiators met in Istanbul, there was only one geography, and our desire to accept Ukraine’s offer was based on that geography. The end of March 2022. Now the geography is different.”
Now we are talking not only about the DPR and LPR, but also about the Kherson region, the Zaporozhye region and some other regions. The Minister emphasized that this process “continues continuously and persistently”.