JAKARTA - The United States has again announced plans to provide military assistance to Ukraine, the value this time reaching USD 450 million or around IDR 6.690.375.000.000, including the addition of a long-range rocket system.
The announcement comes as Moscow's troops advance in eastern Ukraine in a bid to seize the industrial heartland known as the Donbas, where Kyiv fears some of its troops could be encircled in a push for Russia.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the package included four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 18 coastal and river patrol boats and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, President Joe Biden's administration has provided Ukraine with USD 6.1 billion or around IDR 90.691.750 million in security assistance.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said Washington was working closely with Kyiv to identify which types of weapons could best meet their needs in each package.
"The reason we're doing it this way is, so we can stay relevant to what's going on on the battlefield," Kirby told reporters at a briefing at the White House.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine said it had received the first stage of the M142 HIMARS, a long-range weapons system that Kyiv hopes can help turn things around in months of fighting.
The latest package comes after Biden last week announced a $1 billion injection of weapons into Ukraine that includes anti-ship rocket systems, artillery rockets, howitzers and ammunition.
Ukraine says it needs the HIMARS system to better match the range of Russian rocket systems it says are widely used to hit Ukrainian positions in the Donbas.
Washington said it had received assurances from Kyiv that the long-range weapons would not be used against Russian territory, fearing an escalation of the conflict.
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Meanwhile, US officials say that while HIMARS is important to Ukrainian forces, no single weapons system can change the war.
Moscow has warned it will strike targets in Ukraine that they "have not hit" if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
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