Ukraine defence minister says US long-range rocket techniques arrive, as Russian forces proceed to advance within the jap Donbas area.
Ukraine says it has taken supply of US provides of Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Techniques (HIMARS), a robust long-range weapon system that Kyiv hopes may help flip the tide on Russia’s invasion.
“HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thanks to my colleague and good friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these highly effective instruments! Summer time will likely be scorching for russian occupiers. And the final one for a few of them,” Ukraine Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
He didn’t say how lots of the techniques had arrived.
HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine.
Thanks to my 🇺🇲 colleague and good friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these highly effective instruments!
Summer time will likely be scorching for russian occupiers. And the final one for a few of them. pic.twitter.com/BTmwadthpp— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) June 23, 2022
The announcement got here as Moscow’s forces superior in Ukraine’s east in a bid to seize the economic heartland referred to as the Donbas, the place Ukraine fears a few of its troops may very well be encircled in a Russian pincer.
Ukraine has stated it wants the HIMARS techniques to higher match the vary of Russian rocket techniques that it has stated are being extensively used to pummel Ukrainian positions within the Donbas.
Washington stated it has acquired assurances from Kyiv that these longer-range weapons wouldn’t be used to assault Russian territory, amid fears of an escalation of the battle.
Whereas the West has despatched weapons into Ukraine to assist it struggle the Kremlin’s forces, Kyiv has complained it has solely acquired a fraction of what it wants and is clamouring for heavier weaponry.
Moscow has warned it is going to assault targets in Ukraine that they “haven’t but been hitting” if the West provides longer-range missiles to Ukraine to be used in high-precision cellular rocket techniques.