US officials are urging Ukraine to refrain from offensive action until a new military aid package is received. This was reported by Reuters on January 20.
A senior official in the presidential administration said the Ukrainian military should first spend enough time training in the use of the latest weapons provided by the United States.
The official also assured that the United States does not plan to send Abrams tanks to Kyiv, as they are expensive and difficult to maintain.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that the United States would allocate one of the largest military aid packages to Kyiv worth about $2.5 billion. It will include eight Avenger air defense (AD) systems, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Stryker armored personnel carriers and ammunition for an anti-aircraft missile system ( SAM) Nasams.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin promised that the West would not slow down the pace of military assistance to Kyiv at the “decisive moment” of hostilities in Ukraine. According to him, the current military assistance is designed to help conduct a “successful offensive operation at the tactical and operational level.”
At the same time, earlier that day, military expert Alexei Leonkov told Izvestia about the complete destruction of stocks of Soviet equipment in Ukraine. According to him, since the beginning of the special operation, Kyiv has disposed of not only what was listed behind them, but also what the countries of Eastern Europe supplied.
The United States has stepped up military and financial support for Kyiv against the backdrop of a Russian special operation to protect Donbass. Moscow has repeatedly condemned the supply of arms to Ukraine. So, on January 16, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that a new round of supplies to Ukraine of more advanced military equipment could “only drag out the whole story and bring more trouble to Kyiv.”
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
