WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

US to announce $6 bln in weapons purchases for Ukraine, US official says

The United States could announce as soon as Friday new weapons purchases for Ukraine worth $6 billion, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

The weapons could include counter-artillery radar, tactical vehicles, Patriot interceptors, drones, artillery, precision munitions and counter-drone systems, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The weapons package was first reported by Politico.

** Russian attacks kill at least three in Donetsk, wound 10 in Kharkiv, Ukraine says

Russian shelling killed at least three people in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Thursday and a missile attack further north in Kharkiv region hit a railway station, wounding 10, local officials said.

Donetsk regional Governor Vadym Filashkin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said shelling killed three people and injured four in the village of Udachne, west of the city of Donetsk that is held by the Russians.

Ukrainian Railways said a Russian strike killed three of its workers in Donetsk region, but gave no details of where the incident occurred. It was not clear if those victims were the same as those mentioned by the governor.

In Kharkiv region, a frequent target of recent Russian assaults, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the attack hit the city of Balakliia, which was occupied by Russia at the start of its invasion and recaptured by Ukraine months later in 2022.

"The injured were in the passenger train carriages," he said on Telegram messenger.

Synehubov said the train was standing 15 metres (50 feet) from the focal point of the strike.

Kharkiv, which lies about 30 km (18 miles) from the border with Russia, and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks but the strikes have become more intense in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow reacts to secret US delivery of ATACMS missiles to Kiev

The long-range ATACMS missiles that the US has supplied to Ukraine will not help Kiev turn the tide of the conflict against Moscow despite “extremely dangerous weapons,” Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday that US President Joe Biden had ordered the provision of Kiev with a “significant” number of ATACMS missiles for use inside Ukraine back in February. The ATACMS, which have a range of 300km, “were transferred quietly to Ukraine in order to maintain operational security,”Pentagon spokesman Major Charlie Dietz stressed.

The delivery of long-range missiles to Kiev is “impossible to justify,”Antonov wrote in a post on Telegram on Thursday. The move by Washington “increases the threat to the security of Crimea, including Sevastopol, the new Russian regions [the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions] and other Russian cities,” he added.

The assurances by the US officials that the long-range missiles will not be used against Russian territory are “particularly cynical,” the ambassador stressed. “How can we ignore the numerous terrorist attacks by Kiev’s criminals? Deadly strikes on hospitals, schools, kindergartens, bridges and even their own servicemen?”

Antonov reminded that the Russian forces have already shot down mid-range ATACMS missiles, which Ukraine had received last September. The same will happen with their long-range counterparts, he assured, adding that “neither these missiles nor other weapons can help defeat Russia.”

“Aren’t local politicians [in the US] afraid of drowning in the quagmire of conflict? Washington will not be able to get out of the horrible swamp that has absorbed the blood of ordinary soldiers,”the ambassador warned.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed to the fact that Washington’s acknowledgement of the delivery of long-range ATACMS to Ukraine comes amid attempts by Kiev and its Western backers to “deceive the international community into some kind of conference on the ‘Zelensky formula’.”

“Washington’s plan is sickeningly simple: drag everyone into a pointless meeting under the pretext of ‘peaceful intentions’, while at the same time boosting [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s terrorist potential,” she said on Telegram.

Switzerland said earlier this month that it is going to host a peace conference on Ukraine in June, without Russia’s participation.

Zelensky’s plan for ending the conflict, which he has been promoting since 2022, calls for Russia to withdraw from all territory held by Ukraine prior to 2014, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for the formation of a war crimes tribunal. Russia instantly rejected the plan as “unrealistic” and a sign of Ukraine’s unwillingness to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Reuters/RT