Ukraine is receiving new military aid packages from international backers, as its counteroffensive against Russian forces pushes on in the east and south of the country.
The Biden administration is set to announce a new tranche of military aid, worth up to $400 million, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
This comes less than a week after the Pentagon unveiled its last aid installment. This previous aid package, totalling $1.3 billion, furnished Ukraine with missile systems, ammunition supplies, drones and electronic warfare equipment, as well as fuel trucks and tactical vehicles.
The new package, which hasn't yet been formally announced, will include 32 additional Stryker armored vehicles, the outlet reported. The U.S. has already sent 157 Stryker armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.
Ukraine will receive missiles for HIMARS, or High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMs). The U.S. will also bolster Ukraine's supplies of Stinger anti-aircraft systems and Javelin anti-armor weapons. So far, the U.S. has confirmed the delivery of over 2,000 Stingers and 10,000 Javelin systems to Ukraine.
U.S. officials told AP that Washington would sent further supplies of howitzer rounds, mortars, unguided Hydra-70 rockets and 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
The package is also expected to include an unspecified number of Hornet drones, which are used for reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering.
Countries such as Norway have previously pledged the Black Hornet drone. Olso said during the NATO summit in Vilnius earlier this month that it would send a further 1,000 of the small reconnaissance drones to Ukraine's military, with the Norwegian defense ministry describing them as "easy to operate, robust depending on the conditions, difficult to detect and particularly well suited for combat in urban areas."
On Friday, Reuters reported that the U.S. could announce a new military aid package in the region of $400 million as soon as Tuesday, citing three U.S. officials. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment via email.
This comes as Spain committed to beefing up Ukraine's military supplies, with Madrid confirming that four Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks had left the northern city of Santander. The tanks, along with other military supplies and humanitarian aid, will be delivered to Ukraine by the beginning of August, the Spanish defense ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Spain has already sent six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, the government added. The package comes with several types of armored vehicles, which will be split between Ukraine's military and the country's border guard, as well as one armored and three civilian ambulances.
The aid will feed Ukraine's ability to sustain its ongoing counteroffensive, soon to reach the two-month mark. Kyiv's fighters carried out operations along "at least three sectors" of the frontline on Monday, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said in its latest update.
In an operational update on Tuesday, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said its defense troops were carrying out offensive operations around the contested Donetsk city of Bakhmut, the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, and the port city of Berdiansk. Russian forces are putting up "strong resistance" and relocating troops and reserves, the General Staff said.
On Monday, Russia said it had repelled Ukrainian attacks in several parts of Donetsk, also striking Ukrainian targets in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that the counteroffensive, which Russia said began on June 4, has reaped rewards for Kyiv's fighters. In an address to Russia's Security Council on Friday, Putin said there were "no results, at least not yet," to show for Ukraine's efforts.
But speaking to CNN on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine had already retaken around half of the territory Russia had initially seized.
"Unlike the Russians, the Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their future, for their country, for their freedom," said Blinken.
"I think that is the decisive element and that's going to play out," he continued. But it will not play out over the next week or two; we're still looking, I think, at several months."
