Steph Deschamps / August 24, 2022
Ukraine's national holiday comes on Wednesday under high tension six months straight after the launch of the Russian invasion, at a time when the United States is set to announce $3 billion in new military aid, the most ever given to Kiev.
We must be aware that tomorrow (Wednesday), disgusting Russian provocations and brutal strikes are possible, warned Tuesday eveningVolodymyr Zelensky. And we will of course respond to any manifestation of Russian terrorism, added the Ukrainian president, who had already suggested last Saturday that Russia could try to do something particularly disgusting, particularly cruel.
In the early hours of August 24, explosions rang out in several cities, such as Kharkiv (northeast), Zaporizhia and Dnipro (central), according to local authorities. On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev issued an alarmist message warning that Russia could bomb even more in the coming days Ukraine and recommended that U.S. citizens leave the country now.
Since the withdrawal of Russian forces from the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital at the end of March, most of the fighting has been concentrated in the east, where Moscow slowly gained ground before the front froze, and in the south, where Ukrainian troops say they are conducting a counter-offensive, also very slowly. However, Russia continues to regularly target Ukrainian cities with long-range missiles, although Kiev and its surroundings are rarely hit.
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Ukraine celebrates on August 24 its independence from the USSR in 1991, a date that also marks six months of war, which has left tens of thousands dead and caused immense destruction in this country. In this macabre context, celebrate is not really the right word, especially since many inhabitants will be confined: the authorities of Kiev have banned any public gathering from Monday to Thursday in the capital, and the governor of the region of Kharkiv (center-east) has ordered a curfew from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning.
In six months, the peaceful life has been shattered in every family, said Nina Mikhailovna, an 80-year-old pensioner, met in Independence Square in the heart of Kiev. How much destruction, how many deaths, what is this? she wondered.
It is on this highly symbolic date that the United States will announce a new military aid package of about three billion dollars to Ukraine, according to a U.S. official. This will be the largest U.S. military aid package since the start of the war, which will allow Kiev to acquire new weapons or finance training or operations.
The money comes from a Pentagon fund that can be used for immediate operations or for arms procurement. This envelope is different from another fund that allows President Joe Biden to order the immediate transfer to Ukraine of weapons, material and equipment from existing stocks.
Last Friday, the Pentagon announced a $775 million tranche of military aid to Ukraine from the fund. This new tranche of aid included additional missiles for the American Himars precision artillery systems, which have changed the game on the battlefield, said a senior official of the U.S. Department of Defense. On Tuesday, the Europeans reaffirmed their support for Kiev at the summit of the Crimean platform, which brings together the main allies of Ukraine and which already existed before the February 24 invasion.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged the international community to show no weakness, no spirit of compromise in the face of Russia. The Europeans are ready to support the fight of Ukraine in the long term, he added to Volodymyr he added to the attention of Volodymyr Zelensky. We will never recognize any attempt to change the status of any part of Ukraine whatsoever, he said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country will deliver to Kiev for about 500 million euros of new weapons. We must continue to provide Ukraine with all the aid (economic, military, etc.) necessary until Russia ends this war and withdraws its troops from Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson added.