But a senior official from the White House clarified that it is regarding the Himars systems (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), which are multiple rocket launchers mounted on light armored vehicles.
The Himars will use precision-guided munitions with a range of 80 km, the official said on condition of anonymity. Washington decided not to send ammunition with a longer range.
“The Ukrainians will use these systems to repel Russian advances inside Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used once morest (the territory of) Russia,” the official said.
Indicating that he wanted Ukraine to be “in the strongest possible position” in the event of negotiations with Russia, Biden clarified: “We are not encouraging Ukraine and we are not giving Ukraine the means to attack outside its borders.”
This equipment is part of a broader new component of US military assistance to Ukraine, totaling $700 million, details of which will be released on Wednesday.
At a time when Ukraine is facing a very intense Russian offensive in the east of the country, Biden assured in his NYT column that “he will not pressure the Ukrainian government, either privately or publicly, to make territorial concessions.”
Russian forces have a stated goal of controlling the Donbas mining basin, of which pro-Russian separatist forces backed by Moscow took partial control in 2014.
On Tuesday, they seized a large part of the strategic city of Severodonetsk.
The Ukrainians had been asking for some time for rocket launchers that would allow them to attack Russian positions by placing batteries further from the front.
The US Congress recently launched a $40 billion package to finance arms shipments to Ukraine.
