Blinken Wraps Up Kyiv Tour With Announcement Of USD 2 Billion Military Aid, But Forbids Its Use ‘Outside Ukraine’

Kyiv: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday that the Biden administration will provide an additional $2 billion in military aid to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. Wrapping up his two-day visit to Kyiv, he stated that this aid for the war-torn country would be delivered through a ‘first-of-its-kind defense enterprise fund,’ which will channel assistance in the coming months. The aid includes a portion of a $61 billion package approved by the US Congress last month, with an additional $400 million allocated from a separate pool of money earmarked for general foreign defense aid.

However, Blinken also stressed that the Biden administration remains opposed to Ukraine striking targets inside Russian territory with US weaponry — something Ukrainian policymakers have been pushing for with increasing urgency.

The visit coincided with Russian military advances that highlighted Ukraine’s defenses in an “extremely vulnerable” light.

Russia in recent days has mounted an assault on towns near Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday cancelled a planned trip to Spain as concern mounted about the latest Russian assaults.

“We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday at the end of his first visit to Ukraine since September.

“But ultimately, Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war, a war it is conducting in defense of its freedom, of its sovereignty, of its territorial integrity,” Blinken said. “And we will continue to back Ukraine with the equipment it needs to succeed.”

Notably, Ukraine is able to use weaponry supplied by other countries, including the United Kingdom, to hit targets on Russian soil, the White House has forbidden American equipment from being used to hit Russian territory for fear of inciting a direct military conflict with Russia, the Washington Post reported.

This has proved ‘frustrating’ for Ukraine, especially in recent weeks, as it witnessed a military build-up on Russian territory close to Kharkiv but found its ability to strike it very limited, the report added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, appreciated the US help, but also acknowledged the “difficulties” faced by Kyiv due to more than six months of ‘congressional inaction’ that preceded April’s approval of the aid.

“Every delay of supply results in setbacks on the front line. This is the general rule,” Kuleba said. “When a Ukrainian infantryman or artilleryman has everything that he or she needs, we are winning. Every time there are delays in supplies and insufficient supplies, we are not winning. The law of war is cruel but very clear.”

According to assessments from analysts and US officials cited in the report, it appears that Russian forces aren’t poised to take over Kharkiv city at this moment. Instead, their presence seems strategically designed to exert significant pressure within the region, thereby distracting Ukrainian military efforts elsewhere, particularly in the southern regions. The Washington-based independent research group, The Institute for the Study of War, pointed out that the intensity of Russia’s operations in the northeastern parts of Kharkiv has witnessed a slowdown.

This suggests that they might not be geared towards capturing the city, but rather to establish a territorial safety zone along their frontier. Moreover, the report noted that within the southern zones, Russia’s progression, albeit in small, consistent steps, is ongoing. This account is as narrated in The Washington Post.