Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled visit to Kyiv on Thursday as the US announced major new military aid worth more than $2 billion for Ukraine and other European countries that feel threatened by Russia.
In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Joe Biden administration would provide $2 billion in long-term foreign military funding to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners “most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression.”
Pending expected approval by the US Congress, about $1 billion will go to Ukraine, with the rest split between Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
“We know this is a crucial moment, more than six months into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is underway and proving effective,” Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.
Front Burner24:58 Inside Ukraine, a country that lives with war
The view of the war from inside Ukraine varies depending on where you are. For two weeks, CBC News senior correspondent Susan Ormiston has been criss-crossing the country where war has become a normal part of life for some. In the capital Kyiv, businesses are reopening, communities are rebuilding and some who fled at the start of the war have returned. Meanwhile, in Kherson and Kharkiv, fierce clashes continue as Ukraine’s counteroffensive ramps up. The Ukrainians say they are making good progress, but Russia denies this, saying Ukraine is suffering heavy losses. The ongoing media blackout makes it difficult to get a clear picture. Today on Front Burner, Susan Ormiston shows us the complicated reality in Ukraine as the war rages on.
“We are grateful for the signal, for this enormous support that you are providing on a day-to-day basis,” Zelenskyy replied.
The amount is separate from a $675 million package of heavy weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced earlier Thursday at a conference in Ramstein, Germany. This pack includes shells, artillery ammunition, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and more.
The contributions bring total US aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since President Joe Biden took office.
—@DeptofDefense
Austin, who attended a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, said “the war is at another key moment”, with Ukrainian forces launching their counter-offensive in the south of the country. He said that “we are now seeing the demonstrable success of our joint efforts on the battlefield.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, also at the meeting in Germany, urged Western nations to keep faith in their efforts to support Ukraine during what could be a difficult winter months, saying that “there is no sign that Russia is abandoning its goal of taking control of Ukraine.” .”
“I understand that many people are frustrated and really feel the pain in NATO countries with the increase in energy prices, the cost of living,” Stoltenberg said. “But at the same time, we must remember that the price we pay is measured in money … while the price Ukrainians pay is measured in lives lost every day.”
Sanction on Iranian drone shipments to Russia
Also on Thursday, the US imposed sanctions on an Iranian company it accused of coordinating military flights to transport Iranian drones to Russia, as well as three companies it said were involved in the production of Iranian drones.
The United States accuses Iran of supplying drones to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine, which Tehran has denied.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it had designated Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services, accusing it of coordinating Russian military flights between Iran and Russia, including those associated with the transport of drones, personnel and related equipment.
The Treasury also named Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines and Baharestan Kish Company, accusing them of being involved in the research, development, production and procurement of Iranian drones.
The Treasury singled out Paravar Pars Company for its involvement in reverse engineering drones made in the United States and Israel, without specifying which models. Reuters has reported that some of Iran’s drones are based on drones from other countries, including a US RQ-170 Sentinel aerial reconnaissance drone captured in 2011.
Last month, a US official told Reuters that Russia’s Iranian-made drones had suffered “numerous failures”.
Ukraine sees gains on the counter-offensive
Clashes between Ukraine and Russia have intensified in recent days, with Ukrainian forces mounting a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas in the south and east.
Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv forces had liberated more than 1,000 square kilometers of territory since September 1 and retaken dozens of settlements as part of a counteroffensive against Russia. Zelenskyy made the remarks in an evening speech.
Separately, he said Balakliya, a town of 25,000 and a major rail hub, was one of the communities Ukrainian forces have retaken.
“Everything is in place. The flag of Ukraine in a free Ukrainian city under a free Ukrainian sky!” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
The gains came as Ukraine continued to mount a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region.
According to a report released Wednesday by the Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv are “likely exploiting the redeployment of Russian forces” to areas near the occupied city of Kherson in the south “to carry out an opportunistic action but very high”. effective counteroffensive” in the province.
Firefighters search through the rubble after a flat was hit by a missile attack in Kharkiv on Tuesday. A US think tank said the redeployment of Russian troops to southern Ukraine has allowed Ukrainian fighters to make gains in Kharkiv in the north. (Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images)
Ukrainian forces advanced at least 20 kilometers into Russian-held territory in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday, the report said.
Zelenskyy in his late-night video address on Wednesday also reported success in the Kharkiv region, but did not provide details on its extent.
Vitaly Ganchev, the mayor of the Moscow-backed city of Kupiansk, in a Russian-held area of Kharkiv region, said Thursday that authorities had begun evacuating women and children from the city and nearby areas because of the relentless Ukrainian bombings.
Concerns about nuclear power plants continue to rise
Meanwhile, tensions continued to rise around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of threatening a nuclear disaster with bombings near the facility.
The towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, which face the plant across the Dnieper River, had suffered overnight Russian bombing that damaged apartment buildings, a school, some industrial facilities and power lines , said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Dnipropetrovsk province.
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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged residents of Russian-occupied areas near the power plant to evacuate, adding that Ukrainian authorities have urged the Russians to establish humanitarian corridors to evacuate local residents, but they have not received any response.
Ukraine’s Enerhoatom, which oversees the country’s nuclear power plants, said workers at the Zaporizhzhia plant continued Thursday with repair work to restore at least one of seven power lines at the plant, which has continued to operate with only one of the six reactors that operate to power the plant. cooling system pumps.
Rescuers from Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry help a woman put on protective clothing during a nuclear emergency training session for civilians in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. Ukraine has called for an international mission to be established at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and for the population to evacuate the area amid fears of a nuclear accident. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images)
Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin accused Russia on Thursday of trying to “steal” Europe’s largest nuclear power plant by cutting it off from Ukraine’s power grid, in comments to The Associated Press.
“We’re trying to keep this unit running as much as possible, but eventually it will have to shut down and then the station will switch to diesel generators,” he said, noting that those generators are “the station’s last line of defense against a radiation”. accident”.
Ukraine admits rocket attacks in Crimea
The head of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has warned that “something very, very catastrophic could happen” at the Zaporizhzhia plant and has urged Russia and Ukraine to establish a ” nuclear protection and safety zone” around. this
Kotin has said that the IAEA’s proposals to improve security at the plant can only be implemented if Russian troops leave and are replaced by a peacekeeping contingent.
Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian army, General Valerii Zaluzhnyy, acknowledged in an article published on Wednesday that the explosions and fires at the air bases of the…