President Biden Announces New Military Assistance Worth IDR 10 Trillion Including Rocket System, Ukraine: Thank You, Allies

President Joe Biden. (Wikimedia Commons / Adam Schultz)

JAKARTA - United States President Joe Biden announced the latest military assistance to Ukraine with a value of about IDR 10 trillion, saying his country will continue to help Kyiv defend itself.

The announced new weapons package, valued at USD $700 million, includes a high-mobility artillery rocket system, which can accurately hit targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away.

"The United States will support our Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself," President Biden said in a statement.

Earlier, President Biden announced plans to deliver the precision HIMARS rocket system to Ukraine, after receiving assurances from Kyiv that it would not use it to hit targets inside Russia. President Biden imposed the condition to try to avoid an escalation of the Ukraine war.

"Ukraine has given us assurances that they will not use this system to attack targets on Russian territory," Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

A senior Department of Defense official, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon, said the United States would send four HIMARS systems to Ukraine initially.

It will take about three weeks to train Ukrainian troops on the use of the new system, the official said.

"No system is going to change war. This is a battle of national wills. This is a violent and violent conflict," Colin Kahl, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense for policy, told reporters.

It is known that Ukraine has been looking for Multiple Rocket Launch Systems (MLRS) such as the M270 and M142 HIMARS, both made by US company Lockheed Martin, to provide more firepower at longer ranges to achieve concentration of Russian troops and weapons stocks behind Russia.

Kahl said the Pentagon refrained from providing these weapons after determining short-range rockets were sufficient.

"We don't judge that they need a system that travels hundreds and hundreds of kilometers for the current fight," he said.

The long-range rocket Ukraine is seeking could have a range of 300 miles, well beyond howitzer rounds. The rockets, which have been approved by President Biden's Administration, have a shorter range than Soviet-era rockets currently in short supply in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Finer, the White House's deputy national security adviser, said earlier that Washington believed the HIMARS system would meet Kyiv's needs.

“This is a defensive conflict being waged by Ukraine. Russian troops are on their territory," Finer said in an interview with CNN.

There are significant targets that Ukraine cannot achieve with the weapons they currently have, Finer said, and the rocket system would make a huge difference in the conflict in the country's southeast, where Russian forces are currently focused.

In addition to the rockets, the new package includes ammunition, counterfire radar, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as anti-armor weapons, officials said.

"Thanks allies. Let's defeat Russia together," tweeted Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, shortly after President Biden's announcement.

Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and millions more displaced since Russia's February 24 invasion, which Moscow calls a special military operation to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine.