The US Department of Defense has been asked to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday after condemning Russia’s Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system and some of its cities.
Russia attacked Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as drones, Kyiv said.
The strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, local officials said.
Photo: Reuters
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed US$175 billion in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid would continue at that pace under US president-elect Donald Trump, who is to replace Biden on Jan. 20.
Trump has said he wants to bring the war to a swift end.
“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Biden said in a statement.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, also criticized Wednesday’s attack.
“Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” Kellogg said. “The US is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.”
During his presidential election campaign, Trump questioned the level of US involvement in the conflict, suggesting that European allies should bear more of the financial burden.
Some of his fellow Republicans — who from next month are to control the US House of Representatives and the US Senate — have also cooled on sending more aid to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that Moscow sees no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war, but wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of Russia and its neighbors.
“A truce is a path to nowhere,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow suspected such a weak truce would be simply used by the West to rearm Ukraine.
“We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbors,” he said.
Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way to ensure “the impossibility of violating these agreements,” he added.
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