Ukrainian Leader Zelensky Call 41 Minutes: President Biden Announces Aid Of New Weapons Worth Rp. 14 Trillion, Including 18 Howitzers

President Joe Biden. (Wikimedia Commons / Adam Schultz)

JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden has again announced arms assistance for Ukraine. The value this time reached 1 billion US dollars or around Rp. 14,695,100,000,000 which includes anti-ship rocket systems, artillery rockets, howitzers and ammunition.

In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Biden said he informed the embattled leader about the new weaponry.

"The United States is providing Ukraine with another $1 billion worth of security assistance, including additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for artillery and advanced rocket systems," Biden said in a statement after a 41-minute phone call.

The president also announced an additional US$225 million in humanitarian aid to help people in Ukraine, including by supplying safe drinking water, essential medical and health care supplies, food, shelter and cash for families to buy essential items.

The latest weapons package for Ukraine includes 18 howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition for them, two Harpoon coastal defense systems, artillery rockets, radio security, thousands of night vision devices and funding for training, the Pentagon said.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken to Foreign Minister Antony Blinken to thank him for "important military assistance" from the United States.

"(I) stressed that we urgently need more heavy weapons delivered more regularly," he said on Twitter.

The aid package, which came as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with allies in Brussels, was divided into two categories: transfers of excess defense goods from US stockpiles and other weapons funded by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a separate program endorsed by the United States. Congress.

Meanwhile, Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia on Wednesday accused Western countries of "fighting a proxy war with Russia," telling reporters: "I want to tell Western countries that supply weapons to Ukraine, the blood of civilians is on the ground. your hand."

Earlier, Ukraine urged the United States and other Western countries for rapid arms deliveries in the face of increasing pressure from Russian troops in the eastern Donbas region.

Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told reporters at an event organized by Germany's Marshall Fund: "We need all these weapons to concentrate in an instant to beat Russia, not just keep coming every two or three weeks."

The Biden Administration announced plans to deliver the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to Ukraine last May.

It did so after receiving assurances from Kyiv that they would not use it to hit targets inside Russian territory. President Biden imposed the condition to try to avoid an escalation of the Ukraine war.

The rocket artillery in this relief package will have the same range as previous US rocket deliveries. It is funded using the Presidential Withdrawal Authority, or PDA, through which the president can allow the transfer of goods and services from US inventories, without Congressional approval in response to an emergency, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In addition, for the first time, the United States delivered a ground-based Harpoon launcher. In May, Reuters reported the US was working on a potential solution that would include pulling launchers from US ships to help provide Harpoon missile launch capabilities to Ukraine.