Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a news conference with European Council President Charles Michel after their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.
A new U.S. weapons package for Ukraine worth nearly $2.2 billion will for the first time include a longer-range missile, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The Boeing-made ground-launched small diameter bomb, a bomb-tipped rocket with a range of 90 miles, is included as part of a $1.75 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package. That initiative allows the Defense Department to buy weapons directly from defense contractors to then be sent into Ukraine.
Another $425 million in weapons will come from U.S. stocks, bringing the total U.S. military aid committed to Ukraine to $29.3 billion since Russia first invaded last February.
The ground-launched small diameter bomb will give Kyiv “long-range fires capability that will enable them to conduct operations in defense of their country and to take back their sovereign territory in Russian occupied areas,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.
The most notable part of the latest weapons tranche to the embattled country, the small diameter missile consists of a 250-pound precision-guided bomb attached to a rocket motor and fired from a ground launcher.
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As the U.S. military does not currently keep the ground-launched version of the weapon in its inventory, it could be up to nine months before it makes it to the Ukrainian battlefield.
Friday’s package notably does not include Army Tactical Missile Systems, a surface-to-surface missile with a range of up to 200 miles. Ukraine has repeatedly asked the United States for the weapon but has been rebuffed over fears it could be used to strike targets in Russia and escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The new lethal aid does include additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, also known as HIMARS, 181 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, two HAWK air defense firing units, Javelin antitank missiles, drones, artillery, ammunition, radars, military gear and medical supplies.
Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79.
The former leader – who was president between 2001 and 2008 – died after a long illness, a statement from the country’s army said.
He had survived numerous assassination attempts, and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West.
He supported the US “war on terror” after 9/11 despite domestic opposition.
In 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later.
When he returned in 2013 to try to contest the election, he was arrested and barred from standing. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.
He left Pakistan for Dubai in 2016 to seek medical treatment and had been living in exile in the country ever since.
In the statement confirming the death, the military said it expressed its “heartfelt condolences” and added: “May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to bereaved family.”
Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi prayed “for eternal rest of the departed soul and courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss”, his office said in a statement.
Top Ukrainian officials have in recent days escalated their public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.
But that push is being met with skepticism by US and allied officials who say the jets would be impractical, both because they require considerable training and because Russia has extensive anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot them down.
More puzzling to US officials is why Ukraine has made such a public show of asking for F-16s, when in private the jets are rarely mentioned atop Ukraine’s wish list of weapons.
In private conversations US officials at the Pentagon and the White House have had with Ukrainians over the last several months, fighter jets have not ranked highly on the country’s list of priorities, officials said. Instead, Ukraine has been much more focused on long-range missiles – which the US is reluctant to hand over – as well as more ammunition, air defenses and tanks, which are now on their way after a dramatic public debate among NATO allies.
The Europeans have had a similar experience. French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday that while “nothing is off-limits in principle,” neither the Netherlands nor France had received any official requests from Ukraine to send the fighter jets.
Asked on Monday whether the US would be providing F-16s to Ukraine, President Joe Bidenresponded with a flat “no.” Asked on Tuesday, whether he plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid his calls for F-16 jets, Biden said, “We’re going to talk.”
Ukraine’s renewed public push for the planes, which Ukraine’s foreign minister publicly described as a “priority” on Tuesday, appears driven in large part by a belief in Kyiv that with enough public pressure, the Ukrainians can eventually secure weapons systems that were once deemed a red line by the west.
