Blinken offers new US aid as Kyiv reels from renewed Russian attacks
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hold a joint press conference in Kyiv, on May 15.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KYIV – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 15 announced a US$2 billion (S$2.69 billion) fund to help Ukraine build up its defence industrial base, as he concluded a two-day visit aimed at reassuring the country reeling after Russia opened up a new front in its war last week.
Mr Blinken said the United States was working to quickly get more ammunition and weapons to the front lines to help Ukrainian forces fight a new Russian ground incursion into the north-eastern Kharkiv
He said the new funding, in the form of a “first-of-its-kind defence enterprise fund”, was coming at a “crucial time” and would help Kyiv get weapons it needs now. It would also “strengthen even more (Ukraine’s) capacity to produce what it needs for itself”.
Kyiv can also use the funding to buy arms from other countries, he added.
The US$2 billion in foreign military financing draws mainly from the US$61 billion appropriated for Ukraine in April, a US official said.
It also includes US$400 million of foreign military financing that had not yet been allocated to a specific country and will now be going to Ukraine, the official said.
The move follows a US-Ukrainian agreement signed in December to speed weapons co-production and data sharing to help Ukraine’s defence industry.
“We will continue to back Ukraine with the equipment that it needs to succeed, that it needs to win,” Mr Blinken said at a news conference on May 15 before departing Kyiv by train.
Mr Blinken earlier visited Brave1, part of a Ukrainian government initiative to promote collaboration in the defence sector.
In one facility that makes single-use drones capable of surveillance and carrying small payloads of explosives, Mr Blinken was told about the constant need for advances to keep ahead of Russian efforts to down or sabotage the drones.
He was given a brief lesson in flying a drone, and said the Americans were learning about the fast-evolving technology from Ukrainians, who are “testing this in ways no one else is”.
Mr Blinken also visited a company that makes high-tech prosthetics for amputees.
At a grain transhipment facility, he praised Ukraine’s success pushing back the Russian Black Sea fleet, an achievement that has helped to restore grain exports hit by Russian attacks on infrastructure and shipping.
‘Rushing’ military aid
Kyiv has been on the back foot on the battlefield for months as Russian troops have slowly advanced, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortages of troop manpower and artillery shells.
Mr Blinken said during his visit that Ukraine’s move to mobilise more of its population for the war
Military aid from Washington, Kyiv’s main backer, was held up for months, blocked by Republicans in the US Congress until they finally allowed a vote in April, when it passed with support from both parties
“We’re rushing ammunition, armoured vehicles, missiles, air defences – rushing them to get to the front lines to protect soldiers, to protect civilians,” Mr Blinken said.
Washington was “intensely focused” on making sure Ukraine gets Patriots and other air defence systems that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told him are urgently needed to protect people in Kharkiv, Mr Blinken added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba told Mr Blinken his visit “sends a message of encouragement not only to the people of Ukraine but (also) most importantly to the troops, to our soldiers, who are heroically defending Ukraine” including in Kharkiv.
Mr Blinken stayed overnight in the Ukrainian capital that faces frequent air raids and power shortages as Russia targets energy infrastructure
The first senior US official to visit since the new military aid was approved, Mr Blinken sought to focus on Ukraine’s future, which he contrasted to Russia’s “strategic defeat” – the costs of the war to Moscow in terms of casualties, military hardware and international isolation.
In a speech to university students, Mr Blinken pledged enduring US support not only for Ukraine’s defence, but for its efforts to become “a free, prosperous, secure democracy – fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic community – and fully in control of its own destiny.” REUTERS
